Snowpeak
by Tavoriel
Summary: A Twilight Princess fan fiction. If you go sledding, avoid the trees. Also, try to never be trapped all by yourself, with a serious injury, in a mansion owned by yetis. Especially if one of them turns into a monster on occasion.
1. Chapter 1: Betrayal

It looked like a gentle mass of furry evergreen branches, rapidly welcoming Link's careening sled, but his terrified mind processed only the hidden trunks. Over and over within the span of a few seconds, he imagined violently striking cold, hard wood, a scratching host of needles the least of his worries, and was almost surprised when the actual impact occurred.

"Link!" Midna yelled, jumping out of his shadow as the sled went its merry way into an unforgiving cliff face. "Are you alright?"

"Urrk," Link said softly. With the arm he could move, he felt the arm he could not and was immediately sorry he had.

"You're going to be fine," Midna said quickly. "Just fine, Link. It looks like you've broken your arm, but that's about all. The fairy you caught can fix that easily—see, there it is now. You're going to be fine."

The dazzling white-pink shape of a fairy popped out of a bottle that had fallen a ways to the left of the tree (miraculously, the bottle hadn't broken) and spun frantically around him, distress written all over its scrunched up little face. Fairies couldn't stand to see others in pain. So much that they instantly forgave you for carting them around in a bottle the minute their beady eyes caught sight of a speck of blood.

"Your ice sled crashed and broke," Midna was saying. "But it's not far to walk from here. I think. Feeling better?"

"Oh no," Link said miserably, not to Midna but to the world at large, as the fairy disappeared. He clutched his arm and grimaced.

"What's wrong?" Midna asked, concerned. "The fairy just—I saw it fly around you! What happened?"

"Stupid fairy," Link moaned. "Why did I trust that thing to think… Oww…"

Midna reached out gently to touch his arm, but he pulled away.

"Link," she said sternly, "tell me what's wrong. I can't help you if I don't know what you need."

"That _fairy_healed my arm," Link said darkly, "but it didn't think to line the bones back up first."

Midna's mouth formed a silent 'O.'

Link pulled himself carefully to his feet. The fairy had healed his scratches and bruises, so apart from his arm he was fine. Just fine, except for his arm. He looked around, his expression furrowing in concern. The sun, locked in an indecisive state of "day" for the past few hours, finally put its foot down in favor of "evening." As if eager for the coming night and the temperature drop that came with it, the chill mountain wind whistled possessively over Link's unprotected face, through his thin tunic. Mine.

"I can only see trees and the side of the mountain," he said. "I think it's very far to walk from here."

"Fair enough," Midna said, "giving me a hard time for being encouraging. I'll admit I can be a bit proud sometimes, but I'm not above taking a swipe if it was well-deserved."

"Sorry," Link said, shaking his head. "I didn't mean it like that."

"You don't have to be so worried," Midna said. "You're going to be fine. I can warp you to Castle Town or Karikariko village. We'll have a doctor set your arm, and then we'll heal you up with another fairy and be back here in no time. Let me tell you, Zant had no idea just how much he was helping us when he gave us that little magic rock that turns you into a wolf. Come on, let's go."

"Just a minute," Link said. "My gear went everywhere when I hit the tree. I can't leave it here."

"I'll help you pick it up," Midna said.

In forty minutes, they had found everything but the wallet.

"You sure you can't just leave it?" Midna asked. "You only had six-hundred rupees in there, and you can find rupees everywhere."

"It's not the money I'm worried about losing," Link said. "It's the wallet. It's the only thing I can store rupees in that keeps them from disappearing. Without it, that magic armor I bought is useless." He sighed. "It's really convenient to be able to find money under rocks," he said, "but sometimes I wish we used a currency that was a little more… I dunno, grounded in reality. What's money like where you come from?"

"There aren't that many Twili," Midna said thoughtfully. "Half the time we end up bartering with goods. But the money that we use sticks around. I've heard that the princess has chests and chests of it in the castle."

"Good for her," Link said, pawing through the snow with his good hand.

"Would it be easier to dig if you were a wolf?" Midna asked.

"No," Link said, "I'm fine like this. Ha ha, I wouldn't be able to stand up properly as a wolf."

"You're right," Midna said thoughtfully. "Never mind, then."

The wallet was not in the spot where Link was digging. It was not in the next spot either.

"Link," Midna said, "I don't want to alarm you, but there's a group of ice keese headed your way."

There was indeed. They were easy to spot in the evening shadows, five or six moving swirls of bright, whitish blue.

"I suppose I'm lucky enough not to have broken my sword arm, at least," Link said, drawing the Master Sword. "Found anything?"

"Nope," Midna said. "You take care of yourself. Maybe you can hold a sword, but that doesn't mean—oh dear."

The keese flew stupidly around their frozen target, unsure of what to do next. Their usual prey was smaller and had the tendency of freezing to death, but this big creature seemed to have missed the memo.

"Shoo! Shoo!" Midna barked, waving the keese away with her arms. "Link, hang in there. Their magic is so weak I can barely feel it. You'll be unfrozen in no time. Shoo!"

Link had been blasted in the middle of a swing and was very much off-balance. The minute his feet unstuck from the ground and his body unstiffened, he toppled backwards, blocking his fall instinctively with his injured arm.

"Ahh," he said in a strained voice, sitting up. Then he began to laugh.

"What?" Midna asked.

Still laughing, Link held up his injured arm. He was holding his wallet.

"Wow," Midna said, the corners of her mouth turning up slightly. "That's…that's pretty impressive. Are you okay?"

"If it's possible to be okay and in pain," Link said, "then yeah. I'm ready to go when—"

But he was cut off, his throat freezing still, his mouth filling with ice.

"I told you to shoo!" Midna yelled, batting furiously at the keese. "Leave Link alone! What are you bothering him for anyway? Do you seriously think you can eat him? Can't you see how big he is? Shoo, you little numbskulls!"

"Pun intended?" Link asked, shivering violently.

"What do you mean?" Midna asked.

"N-n-numbskulls," Link said, shivering. "Ice, freezing, cold…numb…you know."

"Oh," Midna said. "No. Ha ha. But that works. You know, you look terrible."

"I don't think the ancient hero whose clothes I'm b-b-borrowing was much of a mountaineer," Link said through chattering teeth. "I didn't notice how cold it was up here at first because I came up here as a w-w-wolf. I'd hate to be stuck up here without that nice, furry coat as an option. Or warping. It's scary how far we are from civilization."

Midna was about to say something when she heard it. Seconds later, Link heard it too.

Footsteps. Crunchschruncschrunchschrunch. Louder and louder.

They turned to see the friendly, white shape of Yeto approaching them in the falling darkness. Link locked eyes with Midna, wordlessly pleading, begging. _I know he'll see you if he gets any closer. He'll see me change. But please, let's just warp out of here. I am in pain. Don't leave me with him. Please._

Midna could read his face like a book. But she frowned as if her heart were breaking. She shook her head apologetically, guiltily. She dove into Link's shadow.

"No…" The word was barely a whisper.

"Human!" Yeto boomed, his big face crinkling in concern. "Yeto was worried when you not come! Wife say, 'Human not yeti.' Wife say, 'Human fragile. Maybe human get hurt on mountain all alone.' You alive, uh?"

"Fine," Link said. "Just f-fine. I just stopped to adm-m-mire the v-v-v-v-view; this place is really beautif-f-f-f… urhh. Beautiful. Cold, but beautiful." He sneezed. "You go on ahead. I'll catch up."

"No, come with me," Yeto said. "Silly Yeto, let human slide down here all alone with no warm fur, no protection against cold. I never notice cold, but you do! Lots! Uh, silly Yeto. Come, I carry."

"Nononoo!" Link said. "I can't come right now. I dropped something in the snnnnnn, in the snow, something really important. I'll f-f-follow y—"

The cold breath of an ice keese stopped the words in his throat. Helpless, he could feel strong arms pry him loose from the cold ground, saw the world tilt at crazy angles and finally settle a few feet further below him than it had been before. Fearful, he felt the pressure of the yeti's warm body against his injured arm. The ice kept it rigid for now, but he would be in a lot of pain once that ice was gone…

Yeto would never know if he did not cry out. When he unfroze, he could not cry out. If Yeto found out that his arm was broken, the kind soul would almost certainly try and lend a hand, a blunt hand with stubby fingers, all force and no finesse…

"Aahhhh!" Link gasped half a second later, clutching his arm.

Yeto set him down gently.

"You're hurt, uh," he said with dismay. "Why you not say anything?"

"Because I wanted to have it seen by a doctor down in K-k-kari—kar—karikarik-k-k-k—kar— I wanted to have it seen by a doctor," Link said, a bitter edge creeping into his unsteady voice. "I have a f-f-f-friend with me, a little imp that h-hides in my shadow, who was going to w-w-warp me there, just before you came. She hid because she didn't want you to see us. She has to turn me into a w-w-w-wolf before she can warp me, and she didn't want to scare you. Y-y-y-you know how you saw a wolf b-b-back at the top of the mountain? That was m-me! You said you w-would have taken me home and eaten me if you didn't have a f-f-fish. Alright, M-midna, he knows. Come out now, and let's get going. Th-thanks for your h-h-help, Yeto, but we've g-got this."

"Poor, poor human," Yeto said, his face a picture of outright misery. "Cold and hurt and alone, mind full of crazies. My fault. Uh, my fault for leaving poor fragile little human all alone. Come, human. I take you and "friend" to my house. Sit you down by fire. Make warm soup, uh. Hold still now!"

"Midna," Link said desperately, "please come out! Please?"

She did not come. The wind whipped his face accusingly, whispering betrayal in his ears, as the yeti scooped him up and hugged him close as if he were a baby.

"Yeto," Link said, "I r-really w-was that w-wolf. How could I have known what y-y-you said to the w-w-wolf otherw-w-wise?"

But the yeti only patted his face with a huge, calloused hand and trudged onward into the darkness.


	2. Chapter 2: Hospitality

Yeto's wife Yeta had a kind and gentle spirit, more so than Yeto if that could even be possible. She didn't seem to have arms herself but nevertheless sympathized deeply with her guest. She crooned "Ooooh" and "Oh no" in all the right places as he sat across from her at the fireside, telling his story. Link did not mention Midna to her.

"How does arm feel now?" she asked, voice ringing with sweet empathy.

"Not too good," Link admitted. Once Yeto had dragged the truth about the tree and the fairy from Link, he had been very firm about both the need for setting Link's arm to rights and his own ability to do so. Link wasn't sure how many pieces those blunt fingers had mashed his poor bones into, but at least the limb had been bound into a sorry, swollen package that would heal… more normally than before. Which would take who knew how long unless he could sneak away long enough for Midna to warp him elsewhere, somewhere he could get a fairy. Yeto had no fairies. He didn't even have chuchu jelly. Link had half a mind to give that helmet of Midna's a field test for not warping him earlier. If she didn't kill him for spilling her secrets to Yeto first.

"Not too good" indeed.

"You are brave boy," Yeta said.

Link hardly thought it proper for any self-respecting seventeen-year-old to be called a boy, but he hardly saw the use in offering protest.

"How's your head?" he asked.

"Ache-y," Yeta said sadly. "Speaking of which…"

[Here she looked around furtively]

"I heard what Yeto said about pretend friend Mindy. Don't worry. I not think you crazy. I have pretend friend too."

"Oh really?" Link asked, not sure what else to say.

"Pretend friend made of ice," Yeta whispered. "Beautiful ice, uh, all smooth and sparkly. Visitor in dreams. Always same vision—friend coming down the mountain and covering whole world in ice. And sometimes I pretend I am something that I am not, uh, like you pretend to be wolf. Sometimes in the dream I pretend that pretend friend is me."

"That's an interesting dream," Link said. "Let's hope it doesn't come true."

Yeta frowned.

"It is nice dream," she said defensively. "Ice makes beauty, uh. Ice can make even silliest object beautiful."

"It makes living objects dead," Link pointed out.

"Oh," Yeta said, frowning. "Yes, it does, uh."

"So… did this have something to do with your headaches?" Link asked.

"Friend came after headaches started," Yeta said quietly. "After mirror. Sickness is no fun, but friend is nice. Uh, it is lonely here often. Sad if friend leaves once I am well. What about your friend? Is Mindy nice?"

"Hmm…" Link said. "Most of the time."

Then Yeto came out of the kitchen with two big bowls of horrible-smelling soup. The smell and the memories that came with it brought Link's mind to murky, canine places. One memory was stronger than all the rest, a memory of a triumphant catch in Zora's Domain: _Whooooa, what a smell! It is a GOOD SMELL! It is a good smell for this thing that I have caught, and it is a good smell for me too! Roll, roll, roll, all over! Hooraaaaay!_

Unsettled, Link stared at the faded pictures on the wall, doing arithmetic in his head and running his tongue over generally blunt teeth—anything to remind himself that he was not a wolf at all but a rational human being. His brain did not readily disclose wolf memories with embarrassingly animal content to his human mind, and for good reason.

"Have little taste of soup, uh," Yeto said kindly, offering Link one of the huge bowls. "Tell Yeto if you want more."

There was more to the memory: _Now let's see what is inside this wonderful thing with this wonderful smell! Oooh, it is warm on the inside! This wonderful thing with this wonderful smell is cold on the outside and warm on the inside! Hooray! And wow wow WOW! This wonderful thing has a wonderful taste! Even more wonderful than the smell! I like this thing. I like this thing a lot. This wonderful thing._

"I'm not hungry," Link said. _Seventeen plus sixty, that's seventy-seven. Sixty-eight minus forty-five, that's… that's the same thing as sixty-three minus forty, which is twenty-three. If you add seventy-seven and twenty-three, you get an even hundred…_

But he _was_ hungry, and the yetis were very persistent.

_I miss the water temple_, Link thought darkly as he sipped the warm broth. Another, less sophisticated part of him thought, _Yum yum yum, fish, hooray, hooray!_

_Midna, we need to talk. Soon._


	3. Chapter 3: Alone

Yeto slept by the fireplace next to his wife, cradling her aching head with his massive side, radiating gentleness and care even in sleep. It was touching to watch. And Link did watch. He watched the two of them snore for a good thirty minutes before he was convinced that they wouldn't hear him sneak into the parlor. Then he was gone.

He didn't even have to call for Midna. She was out of his shadow and hovering in his face the minute he closed the parlor door, her visible eye narrowed in regret.

"Look at my arm, Midna," Link said. "That, that… that yeti turned it into a _jigsaw __puzzle_. And you let him! I can understand that you didn't want to come out unless there was an emergency, but I really thought... Midna, I trusted you."

"Link, I'm sorry," Midna said. "My safety is important to the Twili people in ways you're not aware of. I can't take unnecessary risks. I can't justify showing myself to people unfamiliar with the Twili, people with every reason to resent us for what Zant did to these lands. I understand that you're upset, but please don't be angry. Can I see your arm?"

"Sure," Link said. "Maybe you can find a way to damage it further. Think you're creative enough for the challenge?"

"I'd better not try," Midna said, gently running her hands along the outside of the bandage. "You might get back at me by introducing me to everyone you know. Oh, and by the way—I distinctly remember telling you to put on your magic armor before you took off on that ice sled. For the record."

Link was about to respond, but surprise stopped him. Midna had made her hand go all wispy, and she was passing it back and forth through his arm. It was the same trick she'd used to travel through solid iron bars, so long ago in the dungeon where they'd first met.

"For an amateur doctor, the yeti did a good job," Midna said finally. "There is some needless damage, true, but I'm pretty sure everything's in a good position to heal back up. If someone threw a fairy at you right now, you would almost certainly be restored to perfect health. Fairies are dependable enough most of the time. Remember that time you got a big gash in your shoulder? And the time you slipped and drove your foot into a pool of lava in the Goron Mines? You got healed by fairies both times. You didn't end up with a crater on your shoulder or a bone for a foot."

"_Pretty__sure_everything's in a good position to heal?" Link asked. "_Almost__certain_a fairy will work now? Midna, I don't… Oh forget it. Take me to a fairy already and I'll find out for myself."

"That's the spirit," Midna said. "Lie on your back so you don't hurt yourself or fall over when you turn into a wolf. I'll warp you to Ordon Spring. The Great Fairy we met in that cave in the Gerudo desert sent a bunch of little fairies there."

"Thanks," Link said. He lay on his back and waited.

When he did not dissolve into black squares, intuition told him to be very afraid.

"It's not here," Midna said.

"What's not here?" Link asked.

"Zant's crystal," Midna said nervously. "I thought for sure I had it… could I have dropped it when you hit the tree?"

"Zant's… _you__mean__you__can__'__t__warp__me__anymore_?" Link asked in horror, sitting up. "But how could it… Midna, I looked all around that stupid tree! If the crystal was there, I would have touched it, and I would have turned into a wolf instantly! How could we not have found it?"

"Link," Midna said, "I've never said anything about it until now, but that crystal makes me uneasy. I could never understand why Zant would use it against you if all it did was turn you into a wolf. And ever since I started carrying it… I don't know. I know there's no way it could be watching me, but… Hm."

"Midna," Link said, "you've stuck that thing in my forehead dozens of times. Hundreds. I've never noticed anything weird."

"That's true," Midna said, "but we never left it in for long periods of time. If it could hurt you right away, it would have done so when Zant first attacked you with it. The blue-eyed beast is sacred and not very easily corrupted, so you not noticing anything doesn't mean much."

"Okay," Link said, "so maybe _magic__rock_equals _bad_… now what? You'll still use it to warp me out of here once we find it, right? Even if we never use it again… just this one time…"

"I'd certainly warp you if I had the crystal," Midna said. "That's not what I was worried about. What worries me is… Link, I think it wanted to get away from us. I don't think it was me who dropped it."

"That's… no," Link said. "Come on, don't be stupid."

"Poor close-minded country boy," Midna said. "The only thing magical about the world he grew up in was its currency."

Link opened and closed his mouth. Then,

"Okay, fine," he said, "let's say Mr. Magic Rock was on a mission from Zant to break through my defenses, like you suggested earlier. Why would it want to leave? Where would it want to go?"

"I think it realized that its evil has no chance of touching you," Midna said. "I think it's terrified of the Master Sword—what's its other name—Evil's Bane. My guess is that it left to look for easier prey. A keese, maybe? A wolfos? We saw what a fused shadow can do to an innocent creature from this world. Fused shadows are Twili magic. The crystal is… I don't even know what the crystal is. Hyrule could be in danger… oh, Link, the Zoras are right in its path! It'll strike them first!"

"Hmm," Link said. "Alright. If you really think that what you're describing could happen, I'll help you find the rock."

"You're right about the need to find it," Midna said. "But you're wrong about coming with. Forget it. You're in no condition to."

"I don't want to be left here alone with those yetis," Link said, waves of fear coursing through his person. "Not defenseless like this! They're nice as hell, but they're not human. I honestly couldn't say I trust them not to eat me under any circumstance."

"What are you going to do if the crystal's found a host before we can stop it?" Midna asked. "How will you defend yourself, so much as fight? I'd expect a monster created by that crystal to eat you under any circumstance, believe me. I'll have enough on my hands as it is. I don't want to have to worry about protecting you. And I don't want to lose you."

"If you're so paranoid that you have to hide from everyone, why would you take a risk like this?" Link asked.

"It's not only my own people I care about," Midna said. "I can't allow a mutant beast to go on a rampage through your world of light. Please, Link. Don't make this harder than it has to be. I hate the idea of leaving you by yourself like this and you know it."

"Alright," Link said, resting his head on the palm of his good hand. "Midna, you be careful out there, understand?"

"I will," Midna said. She turned to go.

"And I guess you couldn't have warped me anyway," Link said. "If the stone's gone."

Midna flew back and hugged him.

"I would have realized it was gone sooner if I'd tried to warp you," she said.

"Don't die out there," Link said.

"And you don't die in here," Midna said.

"Agreed," Link said.

They shook hands warmly, and then Midna was gone, floating through the door like so much smoke.

Link stared after her for quite some time. Then he turned slowly, sadly away and walked back to the room with the fireplace. He had never felt so alone.


	4. Chapter 4: Lost Ticket

Yeta was gone.

As Link walked, defeated, to his pile of cushions, he could see only the shadowy form of Yeto, a perfect living couch, curled protectively around no one.

Strange.

Link eased himself down into his little pillow nest, careful not to jog his injured arm on any of the surrounding furniture. He was quite tired.

But sleep did not come.

He kept staring at Yeto. At the space where Yeta should be. She had said that her headaches (and her "pretend friend") had come shortly after they'd found the mirror shard. He knew that the fused shadows he'd collected earlier had turned innocent creatures into monsters. Did pieces of the Mirror of Twilight do the same? Those sages from the Mirror Chamber had warned of some dark power associated with the shards. What if, this time, the monstrously-transformed critter was not hiding behind a locked door? What if this monster roamed freely through dark, frozen corridors it knew well, ready to strike at the first sign of weakness? At the first sign of movement, perhaps?

STOP THAT.

Link closed his eyes.

Yeto was here. Yeto was a big, tough yeti with huge, oversized fangs. If Yeto was on your side, you were safe. End of story, go to sleep.

But he still couldn't sleep.

And it wasn't the end of the story. Because somewhere inside the house, he could hear the muffled sound of something very large bumping about.

Link got up and gently shook Yeto. When the yeti did not wake up, Link shook him harder.

Still nothing.

Link got out one of his iron boots (one-handed, awkwardly) and gave his host a firm tap with it.

The growl that rumbled through the yeti's great throat would have scared another yeti. The sound of it sent Link scampering across the room in fright. His back against the far wall, he stared at that large, gently-heaving, furry mass for a good long time before he felt safe enough to breathe at a normal volume.

Maybe he shouldn't wake Yeto after all.

Bump. Ka-bump. Thump.

But would he try to sleep?

Indecisive, he wandered into the kitchen. He felt incredibly helpless, and he didn't like that at all. Changing up the scenery felt good. At least he could control that.

He'd never been in the kitchen before. It was not as open as the room with the fireplace. By the dull glow of embers under a large soup pot, he could see a number of little hiding places. That was reassuring. The whole place smelled like what heaven would smell like, hooray!

No, it smelled like fish. Reeked of fish, you stupid wolf. Link almost turned back, but a faint noise stopped him in his tracks.

"Quirp! Quirp, quirp!"

No way.

Impossible.

Too good to be true.

That was the sound that Ooccoo made when she got stuck in a pot. Ooccoo, that hideously ugly goddess of warping and safety. Unless Link was hearing things, his ticket out was only a few feet away.

He laughed silently. Alright, so he'd been a little worried when Yeto had carried him here, doctored his arm with all the gentleness of a thousand-pound yeti, and plonked him in front of a fire with a bowl of awful-smelling soup. He'd been a little worried when Midna had confessed to losing the artifact that let him warp with her. He'd been a little worried, just now, about Yeta's disappearance, the mirror shard, and those scary noises. But everything was going to be fine. That little bird and her son could warp him over short distances. They usually only used those powers to move him to the mouth of a dungeon, but he was sure that they would make an exception, considering the circumstances. How far could he go with each trip? Did it matter? Soon enough, he would be at Karikariko Village bathing his arm in the healing waters of the Light Spirit's spring. He could be back here before dawn. So what if there was some big ol' scary monster shuffling around this place? He would be ready for it.

Just as Link took a step forward, a door opened.

He had the sense to hide behind a table before looking to see what was coming. Something big. Big and shuffling. In the shadows, it was hard to make out what exactly it was. But two red eyes shone perfectly clear, piercing the darkness, searching.

Link was frozen in fear. Had he brought the Master Sword with him, or was it still lying next to his cushion nest? Would the sword be enough to save his life if he had brought it?

Sniff. Sniff, sniff. The creature had found the soup. It lowered its head into the pot and began to drink in big gulps. Maybe, while it was distracted…

"Quirp!"

Link had almost forgotten about Ooccoo. Stuck in a pot, completely unaware…

That the great head had lifted, soup streaming from its huge jaws.

Sniff. Sniff, sniff.

"Quirp!"

The smell of the Reekfish would mask Ooccoo's scent, Link was sure. But the creature hardly needed a scent. It shuffled towards the shelf that Ooccoo was surely behind. A faint growl rumbled in its throat. Flecks of soup and drool hit the ground, making little plop noises.

Link ducked back behind the table, racked with indecision. No use if he died too, right? But… there was the Master Sword after all, its hilt cold against his reaching fingers. His sword arm was perfectly strong. No use in letting anyone die if he could help it. Ooccoo was his friend.

And his only way out.

The monster shuffled onwards, behind the shelf, towards the defenseless little bird and her small son.

He would face it.

"Hey!" he snapped, running out from behind the table. He half expected to trip over something in the darkness, but he didn't. "Don't take one more step!"

The monster was supposed to have turned, surprised. It was supposed to have charged Link, and he was supposed to have used its momentum to drive the sword home. But the monster continued to advance towards Ooccoo, ignoring Link completely, soup and slobber contributing haunting vibrations to an already terrifying growl.

"Quirp?"

"Ooccoo, look out!" Link shouted, running forward.

Several things happened at once.

The monster snapped its fangs around the pot Ooccoo was in. Ooccoo gave an eerie scream. Her son warped them both away. Link drove his sword into the monster's side.

The monster didn't appear to have arms…so what had grabbed the sword?

Link barely saw the sword halt its forward motion, barely felt the surprising wrench, before he was spun into the wall.

He couldn't hear his injured arm strike the wall, couldn't hear his own shout of pain, over the monster's roar of anger.

Anger and fear?

It stared at him, looked down at the Master Sword.

Evil's bane.

It recoiled. Not badly hurt but badly shaken, it lumbered off through the door it had come in through, just as Yeto lumbered in from the living room.

"Human?" he bellowed. "Human! Where are you? What happen?"

"Ooccoo's gone," Link said weakly. "The monster—it didn't have arms!"

Then all was black.


	5. Chapter 5: Discovery

Midna found no trace of the artifact after searching for most of the night. All of the keese she saw were their usual stupid selves, blowing puffs of harmless frost at each other in mindless squabbles. All of the wolfos she saw only leapt gracefully through the snow in search of game.

Throughout the long, lonely night, she couldn't stop thinking about Link. Should she have tried to warp him away?

Rumors, _an imp who travels with the hero, one of _them_, what was her name, Midna. _There were unfriendly ears who would know exactly which face to pin on this mysterious creature. The face of the Twilight princess. The face of she whose people depended on her so much. If they knew that she had not been rendered helpless as an imp, if they knew what to look for, she would not even be safe traveling in plain sight on Link's back when he was a wolf.

She had come too far to jeopardize her people any further. Already her heart burned with helpless anger every time Link fought those of her kind that Zant had twisted and brought here, hideous shadow creatures doomed to undeserved death at the wolf's jaws.

There really weren't that many Twili.

Link could wait to be healed; in the end, he would be just as healthy as he would have been otherwise. Knowledge of Midna's existence could never be erased from that yeti's mind.

As she searched, she thought of ways she could ease her wounded friend's pain more quickly once she returned. Was there anything here on the mountain she could bring him? Did fairies come to Snowpeak? But she couldn't bring him a fairy; her shadowy fingers would burn if they came into contact with one of those. Chuchus. Any chuchus here? Link would eat chuchu jelly now and then to heal his wounds. But did that _really _have healing properties? Or did Link just use that as a pretense for grossing her out? It didn't matter; she hadn't thought to bring any containers with her.

She'd just have to find the artifact and warp him out of here.

As the hours ticked by, she found nothing, and her anxiety grew. She didn't like leaving Link with those yetis. Did they know to be gentle with him? It always seemed to surprise her how fragile and weak he was compared to a Twili. He couldn't even do any magic. But he was such a risk taker in spite of that! If she were half as defenseless as he was, she would spend most of her time indoors. She would be cautious. Part of the reason she liked to see him as a wolf was because it made him less vulnerable. Thick fur, sharp fangs, claws… if anyone needed them, her Link did.

Her Link. When had he become her Link?

Did it matter?

A keese flapped lazily by and bumped into another keese. A wolfos sprang from the snow, seized the pair of them in its jaws, and disappeared again, spraying plumes of whiteness in its wake.

Nothing unordinary here.

As streaks of dawn bled slowly into the sky, Midna found the tree Link had crashed into and sat in its branches, resting her head in her hands. She would never accept defeat. But she was tired. _Where was that crystal?_

It was not Link alone she had come to respect in this world. In his honest, smiling face she could read the goodness and worthiness of his entire people. Because of him, she had come to care about them even before their princess had made such a selfless sacrifice for her. History told that these same people had banished her kind to the shadows. But she was certain that they had done it out of necessity, not hate. The goodness in Link and Zelda was all the proof she needed. The Light World people were worthy of life, worthy of peace and security. Her Link was her link to them, and she would readily protect them from danger whenever the need arose.

_So where was that stupid thing that threatened their peace?_

Was that it?

That, right there.

The little orange-and-black speck poking out of the snow.

Midna drew in her breath sharply. Sure enough, there it was under the tree. Right here all along.

_We should have spotted that. We _WOULD _have spotted that._

No matter; she was spotting it now. Midna flew gently down and reached for it.

_I'm coming, Link. Hang in there._

Her hand touched it, her fingers wrapped around it, but she did not pick it up. Slowly, it started to sink into her palm.

Midna gave a little shriek. She grabbed it with her other hand to pull it out, but it sank into that hand as well.

It wasn't interested in possessing a keese or a wolfos.

It wanted her.

And she had delivered herself right to it, far from the Master Sword, far from anyone or anything that could save her. She hadn't realized just how much it mattered that the Master Sword had been close by every time she'd carried the artifact in the past.

Pain shot up her arms. Her head pounded painfully. Strange, foreign thoughts crept around the borders of her consciousness, trying to find a way in.

Did the stone try to do this to Link? Was his transformation triggered because the blue-eyed beast was a sacred animal and, almost certainly, had stronger internal defenses against this black malice?

Sneaky whispers in her mind. This artifact hated Link. Hated the Master Sword. It wanted to snuff out the life of everything that breathed, oh sure, but Link most of all. Such humiliation it suffered on a regular basis! The cold blue barriers the wolf's mind could smother it in… the horrible brilliance of _that hated, hated, HATED sword_…

Terrified and crying, Midna struck her hands, fused firmly together now, against the snow. How could she have been so stupid? And what price would Link, all of the people of the light, all of her own people, pay for that stupidity?

_Link and the sword are in the house. In the old house where the yetis live. I want to find them? I want to rip that boy to bloody pieces and fling them into a chasm? I want to destroy that sword?_

But Midna didn't want any of that. She was determined not to allow her will to be eclipsed by the artifact's. But her strength was draining.

She warped.

The thing tried to stay where it was, embedded in her palms, but Midna had excluded it from her passenger list.

When she re-materialized on the shores of Lake Hylia, she felt much better. Her headache had gone completely. Her mind was entirely her own. The only part of her that still hurt was her hands.

Relieved, she inspected them to see if there had been any damage.

She recoiled.

Part of the stone was still welded to one of her hands. Most of the rest of it had broken off, but the part that remained revealed that the stone had been hollow.

A tiny army of angry black ants was pouring out of it and up her arm.

They probably weren't ants, strictly speaking.


	6. Chapter 6: Head Crazies

The sun was shining brightly through the yetis' living room window when Link next opened his eyes. For a second, he had no idea where he was, why he should be propped on a pile of cushions by a fire in a worn but elegant old house.

Then his mind's eye saw the great shadow wearing two beady orbs of red malice, and he remembered everything.

_The monster had no arms. _

He stared blankly ahead, thinking over and over of what that implied, when

"Uh, human! Awake now? You okay?" Yeta asked sweetly, only a few feet away.

Link recoiled in fear. He had been placed next to her this time—no wonder he hadn't noticed her earlier.

"Uh!" Yeta said, dismayed. "What is wrong?"

Her gentle eyes were wide with innocent curiosity. Her delicate face wore an expression of the purest concern. If yetis had angels, this is what they would look like. If yeti angels had no arms.

_The monster had no arms._

"I'm okay," Link said weakly. "I just… you startled me a little… because I'm not used to being around yetis."

"Ohhhhh," Yeta said, nodding knowingly. "I understand. I forget sometimes that humans think yetis are scary. Brave boy, uh!"

"So," Link asked casually, "did you sleep well last night?"

A shadow passed over Yeta's face.

"No," she said. "Headaches. Bad dreams. Not want to talk about, uh."

Link was trying to come up with a good response when Yeto came in from the parlor carrying a dead wolfos in each great hand.

"Human is awake!" he said, dropping the beasts to the floor. "Poor, poor human! Such a scare last night! Bad ouch, sleepwalking, head crazies acting up, uh!"

"Head crazies?" Link asked.

"Human talk in sleep," Yeto replied. "Have bad dream about scary monster with red eyes. Want Mindy and other pretend friend Okoo to save him. Poor, poor human, uh! Lie still and Yeto bring soup."

"There was a monster," Link said.

The yetis were awkwardly silent.

"I bring soup," Yeto said, walking into the kitchen.

"Yeta dream of monster too," Yeta said conspiratorially. "Not think human has head crazies, uh."

"I didn't have a dream about a monster," Link said coldly. "I saw one. It was walking around the kitchen. In real life. Was Yeta's monster pretend, or was it in real life?"

Yeta only shook her head.

_The monster had no arms._

Yeto returned with a bowl of soup larger than last night's.

"Here, human," he said, holding it up to Link's face. "Soup is nice and warm. Drink! Will help ouch."

"Yeah, yeah, I know how to feed myself," Link said, putting his good hand on the bowl's rim and turning his face away. "Put it on the floor for me, if you don't mind."

Yeto surrounded Link's head with giant, gentle fingers and turned it to face the bowl.

"Good for you," Yeto said. "Nice and warm, uh."

"Yeto!" Yeta said sharply. "Stop! Not nice! Put bowl on floor, uh!"

Yeto obeyed her instantly and sat, sheepishly, a ways away.

"Sorry," he said.

"It's fine," Link said shakily. On the rug by the door, the two wolfos lay stiffly, tongues lolling lifelessly out of crushed skulls. Skulls that had felt those same great hands.

"How is ouch today?" Yeto asked. Yeta leaned closer, eyes wide.

_The monster had no arms._

"Uh, guys," Link said, "Your concern is touching, but I'm much more worried about the monster that was in the kitchen last night. My 'ouch' is pretty painful, but it isn't going to eat me alive in my sleep, you know?"

"No monster," Yeto said. "Human have bad dream."

"Then what drank all of that soup?" Link asked. "What broke all of those pots?"

"Human did," Yeto said. "Sleepwalking."

"You think that _I_…" Link started. "Yeto! Look at me! Look how small I am! Do you honestly think all of the soup that went missing could even _fit _in my stomach? And how do you suppose I even got it out of the pot? Where are the dirty dishes? Are you suggesting I clambered up onto some boxes, bent over, and slurped it up like a dog? _With a broken arm?_"

"No monster," Yeto said.

"I think you should talk to your wife about her headaches and bad dreams some more," Link said. "Once I met this goron that was turned into a monster by dark magic like that mirror, and—"

"Wife not monster," Yeto said, his voice as cold and final as the mountain itself. "I ask her what happen. She say she got up in middle of night and went to bedroom to sleep. Stay there all night. I believe her."

"Yeto," Link ventured, "Didn't you say that you've been keeping the mirror—"

"I BELIEVE HER," Yeto roared.

Link was certain that he would die, right there, right then—was certain that he was about to be picked up and bashed against the wall. He shrank back in fright, shoving cushions here and there, desperate to get away from the terrible, terrible creature before him. He reached for the Master Sword even though he would almost certainly be too late…

But the great hands did not reach out. Yeto only sat there, staring coldly at his guest.

Yeta began to cry.

Yeto picked up his wife gently.

"Drink soup," he told Link. "Good for you. Good for ouch." Then he ambled off through a door, into another part of the house.

The soup covered the carpet, a rapidly-spreading stain. Link's scrambling feet had knocked over the bowl.


	7. Chapter 7: Outside

Snowpeak was a cold place.

Link's spirits were quite possibly lower than the surrounding temperature as he snuck down the front steps of the yetis' mansion. He didn't have much reason to sneak—the wind howled loudly enough to hide the sounds of ten escaping Links—but it made him feel safer anyway. Maybe there was something just inside, its ear to the door.

_STOP THAT._

Link reassured himself that the monster would have opened the door and rushed him by now if it suspected he was here. That maybe it wouldn't even be able to open the door, without arms. But when Link got to the bottom step, he ran until he hit deep snow.

Very deep snow. Snow that didn't approve of being walked through. He should have expected something like this.

As the mountain claimed his warmth and fought his every step, Link grew more and more assured that he had made the right decision, putting on the magic armor. This trip was going to be a cold and miserable one, and longer than Link had planned for, but at least he wouldn't have to worry about frostbite.

It was thanks to Midna that he had the suit.

From the instant she'd found out that such a thing existed, she had wanted him inside of one. It had been her idea for Link to strike a deal with snotty little Malo, refusing to donate to the shop fund until (FINALLY) the brat had promised the place would stock affordable magic armor.

Link had never liked the idea of magic armor, and he'd fought Midna all the way. A shield was one thing, he'd said, but a magical, padded Ouch-B-Gone suit was another thing entirely.

Now it protected him, when she could not.

Where was she?

_Maybe she left for good._

No, of course not. She needed the Mirror of Twilight.

_To do what? Something about… finding Zant… or that Ganondorf guy… she never told you what the mirror does, did she? She never tells you anything. Maybe she's out looking for another way to find Zant. She probably doesn't trust you to keep her a secret anymore, and she obviously doesn't care about you enough to stop a yeti from setting your arm like he was uncrumpling a piece of paper. Maybe she's done with you. Maybe she'll show up three weeks later and invite you to a Ganondorf-and-Zant-are-dead party. _

_Have a little faith. This is _Midna_. Midna stood by while Yeto mangled your arm because she HAD to, never mind whether or not you know the details. She would never leave for good without telling you. If she says she'll come back and doesn't, she's in trouble. _

Of course. Of course she was in trouble. Everything she'd said about the crystal must have been true. Had she challenged its new host already? Perhaps she was dead and the Zoras were being murdered even now. And Link was too far away to do anything about it. Was it a bad idea to try and leave the place where Midna would eventually come looking for him if she was alive? Was it a bad idea to travel towards a potential warzone?

But Midna was not the only one in trouble.

One of the magic armor's sleeves flapped uselessly in the wind. Link's injured arm, crammed awkwardly under the gold breastplate, throbbed miserably. The armor would prevent new damage, but apparently pain didn't count as damage.

There was a monster in that old house. A meat eater the size of a small, armless yeti. And only Link would allow himself to believe that it existed. It was afraid of the Master Sword, but there's only so much heroics you can pull with the Master Sword when you're shivering in your boots and sick with pain.

And if Midna was lying, wounded, in the snow, farther up the mountain, Link would be her only hope.

If only progress wasn't so horribly slow! Glancing back, Link could see that the mansion was still very close. Snow didn't care about only hopes. At this rate, would six hundred rupees be enough to power the suit for the entirety of the trip? How quickly did constant protection from freezing temperatures drain the wallet anyway? And what would happen if the money ran out before Link reached the top of the mountain? There were ice keese further up the slope. Link was a regular ice keese _celebrity_. Would the armor prevent him from being frozen in his tracks?

And hadn't there been chasms? He remembered a really big one, right in front of the tree that Yeto got ice sleds from.

_A memory of dripping fangs, red eyes._

_A thought of Midna, lying very still, partially covered by snow..._

Chasms? Ha. Who was scared of those? He'd figure something out. He had a clawshot—he'd just snag the tree with it and _shoom! _Over! And he wouldn't run out of money. Money could be found all over the place—under rocks, inside plants, even inside animals. If Link himself were to die, there was probably a good chance someone could pull a shiny rupee out of his remains if they were quick enough.

_Speaking of dying. The snow slows you down, but it's not deep enough to slow down that monster. Magic armor is really fun and all, but you only have so many rupees. If that thing comes after you now, you're finished. _

Link looked anxiously back at the mansion.

As if summoned by his fears, a large white shape was bounding down the front steps, taking them two at a time.

Link panicked. Terrified, he dove forward and started to half-crawl, half-swim through the snow. His arm twinged sharply in protest, but a lot more of him was going to be in agony if those fangs…

_Crunchschrunchcrunchschrunch_, went rapid footsteps through the snow.

Running was useless. He should never have tried in the first place. The Master Sword was his only hope now. He turned…

To face Yeto.

The yeti was lumbering forward, arms outstretched, eyes wide with concern.

"HUMAN!" he boomed.

Link sat down in the snow, relieved and angry at the same time. Maybe Yeto would be a help. Maybe he'd be a hindrance. Maybe that was up to Yeto, and no one else would get a vote. Link waited. Waited to be picked up and carried back. Or maybe he was waiting to be yelled at, force-fed something , eaten alive—who knew.

"Are you okay?" Yeto asked, squatting down and bringing his large face up to Link's small one.

"Fine," Link said.

"Yeto scared you today," Yeto said unhappily. "Very sorry, uh."

"Your wife clearly means a lot to you," Link said, shrugging.

"She does, uh!" Yeto said, grinning broadly. "Wife is whole world."

They were silent for a moment.

"Human scared of Yeto, trying to leave?" Yeto asked, frowning guiltily. "Yeto is bad host, uh. Yeto not thinking, leave human all alone to sled down dangerous mountain. Then human get hurt, have ouch, have head crazies. Yeto try and help, but then Yeto shout loud and scare human bad. Not good at all, uh."

_Still don't believe in the monster, eh?_

"You've been a fine host," Link said. "You've shown me great hospitality, more than anyone could expect from a stranger, and I am very thankful, very grateful. I'm leaving because… I'm upset about my arm. Humans have ways of healing wounds very fast, and it's hard for me to stay here, hurting and knowing that I don't have to." _Also, my imaginary friend that you didn't believe in could be out there dying on the slope. Also, you can go ahead and write "EAT ME, MONSTER! I'M WEAK!" on my bandage. Go on._

Yeto blinked, processing slowly.

"Human… not leaving… because scared… of Yeto?" he asked, sounding out each word as if a favorable response hinged on the accuracy of his pronunciation.

"No," Link said. "You were pretty scary before, but you didn't… Um. _Should_ I be scared of you?"

Yeto laughed so loudly that Link's mind jumped to avalanche-related calculations—how much snow was piled up in the area, how fast could Yeto run, how sturdily had Snowpeak mansion been built…

"No!" Yeto laughed. "Yeto shouted and is very sorry. But Yeto is not a beast. He can lose temper and not strike out with teeth and fists. He is thinky, like you. Values life of other thinky things, uh. So happy that you not scared silly of Yeto! So happy that you think true about yetis!"

"Don't mention it," Link said. There was a great big "SHHHH!" buried behind the words.

"Yeto not know anything about humans," the yeti continued. "Not understand what you say about healing ouches fast, uh. But probably better for human to be with own kind when hurt. Probably bad to be here. I take you to humans. Should have taken you to humans much sooner, uh."

"Thank you very much," Link said, greatly relieved. "Now, that piece of the Mirror of Twilight that I came here for, should I…"

"Ha ha, human want silly mirror?" Yeto asked. "Human can take! I bring it with us. Yeto not like mirror, uh. Mirror give wife headaches. We go tomorrow, first light. Bring warm blanket, bring soup. I take you up mountain, give to Zoras. Zoras show you where humans are. Come back to Snowpeak, visit when better, uh!"

"T-tomorrow?" Link asked, "I'm actually ready to go now. This armor I'm wearing is ma—is really warm."

But Yeto shook his head. "Took two wolfos today," he said. "Make other wolfos angry. Less angry tomorrow. We come back to house, uh? I can carry; that okay?"

Link started. He'd been given a choice. But still, it was only a choice in his manner of transportation back to the mansion…

_Red eyes. Dripping fangs._

_A motionless black and white form lying in the snow._

"Yeto," Link said quietly, "there are other reasons I have to leave. Besides my arm. I'm incredibly grateful that you've offered to host me for one more night, but I can't go back. I'm sorry."

The yeti scooped him up gently.

"I show you something," Yeto said.

Yeto strode through the snow up the mountain, away from the house, in the direction Link had been headed. Minutes later, Link drew in his breath sharply. The path led to a massive abyss. A snow-covered rock jutted out of the blackness a ways away. Further still, much further, the path continued.

There was nothing whatsoever for a clawshot to grab onto.

"Not a good idea for human to come here," Yeto said gravely. "Not safe to walk."

"Yeto," Link said shakily, "please take me up the mountain tonight. Or at least put me down on the other side of that chasm so I can go the rest of the way myself."

"Other dangers too," Yeto said, shaking his great head. "More long falls. Cliffs. Farther up. And wolfos. Gather in big numbers when threatened by yetis, uh. Not safe."

"Don't take me back… back there…" Link sputtered. "I can't… I have to… Yeto, please! _Please!_"

"Poor human," Yeto said, patting Link's face and turning to leave. "Shhh. Nothing real to be scared of. Head crazies acting up, uh. Shhh. I take you back to house. Nice and warm."

Link struggled, trying to slip out of the yeti's arms.

Even though success would win him nothing.

HELPLESS. HELPLESS. HELPLESS.

"MIDNA!" he shouted, never mind about avalanches. "MIDNA! ARE YOU THERE? CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

"Mindy is back at the house," Yeto said encouragingly. "And Okoo. Waiting for you, uh. Plan surprise party! I take you there, uh!"

Link's struggles were showing signs of success. He started to slip. Yeto caught him and readjusted his grip, unwittingly pushing his enormous arm hard against Link's broken one.

"Gahhhh…" Link said.

Then the magic armor stiffened and turned a beautiful dark blue, which meant that Link was out of rupees and the armor couldn't work anymore. Protecting against the constant biting cold had been more expensive than Link had dared to fear. Almost immediately, he felt his ears and fingers go numb. The gold breastplate pressed cruelly against his injured arm.

"Oh!" Yeto said unhappily. "I hurt your ouch! I sorry! You okay?"

Link nodded.

But he wasn't okay.

Because, unaided, he could not leave.


	8. Chapter 8: Not Take Mirror

The mansion's front door opened as Link and Yeto were approaching, flooding the porch in gentle yellow light. Silhouetted in the doorway was, somehow, impossibly,

"MIDNA?" Link sputtered.

"Surprise!" Midna shouted happily, throwing an armful of confetti out the door.

"Surprise!" Ooccoo shouted from behind Midna, wearing a vibrant green party hat that somehow failed to make her look any less ugly.

"Surprise!" Ooccoo Jr. shouted, hovering behind his mother like a little humming bird (perhaps a "humming bird" that a small child had made out of clay).

"M-MIDNA?" Link said again, barely comprehending what he was seeing.

"Ha ha!" Yeto boomed. "I tell human there is surprise party with Mindy and Okoo, and he no believe me! Silly human, uh!"

"Yeto!" Midna said angrily. "You TOLD him?"

"Yes," Yeto said, thoroughly confused. Moments later, realization clouded his face. "OH. Surprise party… not a surprise if you tell… got it. Sorry, uh."

"Link still looks pretty surprised," Ooccoo said thoughtfully.

"Midna…" Link said, surprised to the highest degree. "I don't understand…"

He stopped talking, because behind Midna he could see Zant swinging from the rafters in the parlor, doggedly clutching the broken handle of a wine glass.

"Whoooooooooooo," went Zant happily.

"I guess I have a lot of explaining to do, don't I," Midna said, smiling. "But why don't you and Yeto come inside first? I'll answer all of your questions over cake."

At the word 'cake,' Zant fell to the floor with a loud _thump_.

"Cake?" he said. "Hey, babyface, how about some cake here, yes please."

"Shut it, you," Midna said. "And don't call me that. We're not going out anymore."

"But darling I still love you!" Zant said, all in one breath.

Midna laughed. "Should've thought of that before you broke up with me."

"GAAAHHH!" Zant screamed. "I JUST WANT SOME _CAAAKE!"_

And then there really was an avalanche.

* * *

><p>JUST KIDDING<p>

Sorry. Yeto said there would be a surprise party, and I couldn't resist.

The real chapter 8 starts below.

* * *

><p>Link sat near the fire. Shivering occasionally. Staring at the flames.<p>

_Midna's probably dead,_ he told himself. _Zora's Domain is possibly destroyed. Hyrule could be in serious trouble._

And tomorrow morning he would find himself in whatever was left of Zora's domain, minus the use of an arm, plus one mirror shard.

Alone.

He didn't know what Midna wanted the shards for, really.

He could try to find the other ones without her, take them to the mirror chamber, and see what would happen if he put them back together.

Of course, he should probably help rid the land of the monster wolfos (or whatever it was) first. Would anyone stand against it if he didn't? Princess Zelda and the soldiers had let the kingdom fall to Zant's invasion. Colin wouldn't have escaped from the Bulblin King if Link hadn't been there. When stupid, bratty Malo needed money to open up a store, he hadn't even figured out how to _stomp on grass_ by himself. When you had to start stomping on grass for people…

But the monster might well be the least of Hyrule's worries. What was Zant up to? Would he use the monster's attack as an opportunity to strike? Did he have any magical ties to the crystal that would alert him of its movements? And Ganondorf? Where was he? What were his plans? What was he even capable of?

What to do?

How to prepare?

Impossible…

Link blinked back tears.

Zelda couldn't defend Hyrule, Renardo couldn't save Colin, and Malo couldn't stomp on grass without Link's help…and meanwhile Link himself couldn't decide which hand to sneeze into without Midna's guidance.

_But you can decide which hand to sneeze into right now, right? Ha. Ha. Ha._

Link didn't find any humor in that at all. But his eyes grew drier. Because there was truth to the thought: when the choices have been narrowed down, you don't _need_ guidance. It's nice to have a magical friend to lead you to dungeons so you can find magical artifacts that no one else could possibly know were hidden there. But you don't need a magical friend to know to fight an evil monster that's right in front of you. If Hyrule was in immediate danger, Link would step up to the plate. If Zant or Ganondorf attacked, he would step up to the plate. It was as simple as that.

But… Grrr.

Preserving the safety of Hyrule had nothing to do with _finding Midna and making sure she was safe!_

"Link."

He jumped. For an instant, he was positive that Midna had spoken to him. She was the only one this far from civilization who called him by his name. But when he looked around wildly for his lost friend, he only saw Yeta, looking at him expectantly.

"Yeta, did you…" he said.

"Link," Yeta said again. There was sadness in her voice.

"Yes?" Link asked politely, deeply wounded by the false hope.

"Not take mirror," Yeta said quietly.

"Oh…" Link said. "So Yeto told you that I'm leaving tomorrow…"

"Not take mirror," Yeta said again.

"I'm sorry, Yeta" Link said. "I have to. I came all this way for the mirror. You live far away from the humans and the Zoras, so you might not know this, but they're in great danger from an evil power. So are you and Yeto, once the power realizes you're here. I can use the mirror to stop that power. It's… it's the only way."

"Not take mirror!" Yeta said, starting to cry. "Not take. Please not take. So lonely… Not want to lose pretend friend. _Not take mirror!_"

"The mirror isn't good for you," Link said. "How can I put this… you know some things about the mirror that you've never told Yeto, right? That you've never told anyone? _Scary _things? Your husband loves you, Yeta. He told me you were his whole world. I think you can talk to him about the mirror. I think he can help you. I think I can help you by taking it away."

"_Can't talk to Yeto_," Yeta whispered fearfully, as if voicing her concerns could shatter the invisible bonds of her marriage. "Good heart, strong and kind. But no listen. Ears turn inside of head instead of out to conversation, uh. Love husband. Love husband more than anything. Tell him every day. But still… so lonely… Please, Link. _Not take mirror_."

Link was at a loss for words. He was still trying to come up with a response when Yeto opened the door of the kitchen carrying a bowl of soup—the first of three, presumably.

He saw Yeta crying right away.

"Human!" he boomed. "Not tell wife she is monster!"

"Link not call Yeta monster!" Yeta said, coldly and clearly. "Yeta just sad."

"Not THINK wife is monster," Yeto said, giving Link the evil eye. He set down Yeta's dinner next to her and returned to the kitchen.

Sobbing gently, Yeta got up and waddled as quickly as she could to a door that led deeper into the mansion. Link couldn't see how she opened it, but somehow she did, and then she was gone.

It was one of the most heartbreaking things Link had ever seen.

"Where is wife?" Yeto asked when he came back to the living room holding another bowl of soup.

"She wanted to talk to you in private," Link said. An instant later, he couldn't believe what he'd just said. It really wasn't his business, not at all. He should have kept his mouth shut and apologized for calling Yeta a monster and anything else Yeto wanted to blame him for.

And these were huge, pea-brained _yetis_ whose private lives he was tangling with. _Humans_ value sentient life and still end up deciding to hurt, even kill each other often enough when provoked. Oh _dear_…

"Wife could have come in kitchen," Yeto said suspiciously. "To talk in private, uh."

"Yeah," Link said, "I dunno. That's where I would have gone if I'd wanted to talk to you in private. Maybe she didn't want to have to compete with the soup for your attention." A smart answer, he thought… but still, _oh_ _CRUD. _"She went through that door."

"I go see," Yeto said, worry turning down the corners of his mouth. He hurried off to find Yeta. He didn't even think to set down Link's dinner before he left.

Link stared after him. How in the world could two good creatures that loved each other so much cause each other so much hurt…?

But that thought led to thoughts of Midna and what could easily have been the last day he would ever see her.

A day of Secrets. Betrayal. Anger. Selfishness. Pain.

It was impossible to hold the tears back this time.


	9. Chapter 9: The Master Sword

Link awoke the next morning to a sense of doom.

It took him a while to figure out why.

The morning after he'd been hurt by the monster, he'd been extremely disoriented, but today he remembered exactly where he was and why he was there. The sense of doom had to be coming from new information.

Did last night's dream have something to do with it? Something very troubling had happened in the dream, he remembered… what was it… ah, right. That. He'd been looking for Midna in Zora's Domain and had suddenly stumbled upon Midna and Zant sitting at the edge of the water and snuggling.

Hm.

Disturbing though the image was, it was hardly sense-of-doom material.

Was it possible that he had new information about the monster? Was there a chair that had been upright last night and wasn't today… something like that? Any indication that a monster had been through here?

No. The room was tidy enough. And wouldn't the monster have eaten him if it had caught him sleeping?

Had there been any shuffling or bumping last night?

No… not while Link was awake… and if there had been any of that while he was sleeping, would it have registered enough to cause a sense of doom?

No, there was nothing immediate to worry about. The sense of doom lay in some detail… something Link had forgotten about…

The sun shone brightly through the window. Link found it comforting, somewhat, to at least know that he would face the impending trouble under broad daylight…

Broad daylight?

_Yeto said they would leave at first light._

Link stood up, heart beating quickly.

Last night, Yeto had gone to talk to his wife… who had been twisted by the mirror shard and did not want to relinquish it… and neither yeti had come back last night… which Link had thought nothing of… not at first…

Link began to pace nervously.

Of COURSE the yetis would have talked about whether or not the mirror shard ought to stay. Of COURSE Yeta would have put up a fight to keep it. What kind of a fight, though? The kind of fight where you look at the floor and cry a lot, or the kind of fight where you grow fangs unexpectedly and lunge for your husband's jugular vein?

Well, judging by Yeto's absence…

Link paced faster. Why had he interfered? Why? He was supposed to be the one who got in trouble for meddling, not Yeto. Or Yeta, for that matter. She was smaller than Yeto. If the yetis fought, how would she fare?

She would fare just fine. Of course she would. Link couldn't imagine Yeto's strong hands colliding with that soft, brown face, not ever, fangs or no fangs.

"Midna?" he whispered uncertainly, hopefully. "Did you come back last night? Are you in my shadow?"

She had not, she was not.

Link paced faster still. The monster would expect him to be in this room. It was a miracle that it hadn't come in and devoured him already. Unless he wanted to be messily eaten alive, he would have to find a good hiding spot, preferably one that he could get out of in a hurry.

_That's right. You could be messily eaten alive. Better accept the idea _BEFORE _you find yourself face to face with a checkered blankie with fangs. _

So. Where to hide?

He tested the doors that didn't lead into the parlor or the kitchen. Both of them were locked.

The parlor had a lot of promising hiding spots under all of that debris.

But that was thinking with your eyes, thinking like a human. That night in the kitchen, the monster had been sniffing. Link knew exactly what the world looked like through a sharp sense of smell. Put a pile of wood on top of something that smelled like dinner, you got something that smelled like dinner with a pile of wood on top of it.

Also, there was a ghost in there. He'd seen it on his way out last night.

_Find the smelly fish and ROLL IN IT, you silly person!_

A wolf thought… but the logic was sound. The whole kitchen smelled very strongly of reekfish. Link could hide amongst the boxes and shelves without fear of being sniffed out.

_Right, hide in the kitchen. With all of the _other_ food. Hide in the one place the monster is sure to go once it gets hungry and can't find any tasty, defenseless _people_ wandering around the mansion. Want to bet your life that you won't have to sneeze or cough while it's busy swallowing Yeto's wolfos whole? Want to bet your life that it isn't in the mood for whatever's in the box you're hiding behind?_

So, if not the kitchen, where could he hide…

Frustrated, Link finally gathered his things, went into the parlor, and sat down with his back against one of the double doors. The doors opened into the parlor. They were heavy. If the monster opened a door, Link could send that door RIGHT back at it, SMACK. SMACK, SMACK, SMACK, as many times as necessary.

_Wow, _that's_ the plan? I'm gonna die._

Link put his face in his good hand.

He'd not only failed himself, but Midna as well.

Essentially, he was the only one who knew or cared that she existed. If he couldn't save her, no one would. And he _couldn't _save her, not now, not like this… not now and not ever because no one would come looking for him.

No one ever came looking for Link.

A while back, before he'd found all of the fused shadows, he'd told many of his supposed friends that he would be exploring the Zoras' Lakebed Temple and that he would be gone for about a week. That week had turned into more than three. Link had spent those miserable weeks living off fish and Tektites. Sleeping in as high a place as he could find and still waking up in a puddle. What had happened when he had finally returned to the surface with the fused shadow? "Hi, Link!" said each of the supposed friends. "Haven't seen you in a while! Where have you been?"

But that had been his choice. As Midna had constantly (CONSTANTLY) told him, he could have, at any time, used Ooccoo to warp out and find some decent food and get a decent night's sleep.

Ha ha. Midna was a female and had strange ideas about when it was a good time to give up, so of course she'd bothered him.

Anyway, the point was that he'd _chosen _to stay in the Lakebed Temple, so it hadn't really mattered that—

Stop. Midna hadn't been bothering him. She'd said that because she cared about him. She'd cared about him even then, before either of them had fully realized that they were no longer enemies bound by a common cause…

_Midna…_

There would be no rescue party.

Link stared emptily into the parlor. The ghost knew he was there, and it shook its lantern menacingly.

_I'm never going to leave this place, am I? _

Cold seeped through the aging walls of the mansion.

_I'm the only one who would think to rescue Midna… she's the only one who would think to rescue me… neither of us are in a position to rescue anybody…_

No! Someone WOULD come to rescue Link. There WOULD be a rescue party. If he went missing for, say, a month, surely _someone _would figure out that he was in trouble and come looking for him.

Who, the people who couldn't figure out how to stomp on grass by themselves?

Telma's friends! Telma's friends were different. They would come.

Maybe… but certainly not anytime soon.

They would have to come.

Maybe?

But, even if they did, that wouldn't do Midna any good at all, would it…

Suddenly, Link felt compelled to look down at the Master Sword, lying on the ground next to him. Evil's Bane. This sword had allowed him to pull it free from the Sacred Grove. It had seen in him a person who would use it to combat the forces of evil. Not the forces of easy. Yeto could be dead or dying. Yeta was possessed by a dangerous magical artifact. Link's two infinitely kind hosts were in trouble, hosts who had done all they could for him when he had come to their home badly injured… and here he was thinking of hiding and escaping?

"Are you… talking to me?" Link asked the sword. "Because suddenly I'm thinking about what the ideal wielder of the Master Sword would do in this situation, and… look, I'm in no position to help anybody. I'm going… I'm going to be dead before sunset if that monster's out and about, understand? I'm sorry."

Link wouldn't survive here for a month or so if he couldn't survive here for a day. And Midna couldn't wait a month, even if Link lived to be rescued. Would Zant and Ganondorf stay hidden and nonthreatening for a month? Would they wait patiently for Link to find the other two shards of the Mirror of Twilight after that? To come back for the shard that was here at Snowpeak Mansion? Would Zant and Ganondorf stay hidden and nonthreatening for forever if Hyrule's only hero, the land's single remaining hope, got devoured?

There was a way out of this place, a way out that didn't involve waiting for a group of young adults that hung out at a bar. Escape would be possible on the back of a yeti. Even if Yeto was dead or gravely wounded, defeating the monster in Yeta would enable her to help. Perhaps she wasn't even being a monster at the moment.

Link picked up the sword.

In his mind's eye, he could see that man-eating monster retreating from him, despite his obvious weakness, because of the sword's power.

"You've given me hope," he said slowly. "You dumb sacred artifact! If I take your advice, my chances of survival—I'll let you work out the exact percentage, but it's not a big number. But you've given me hope, all the same. I ought to chuck you into a chasm for that. _Because it worked, and I'm going after Yeta._ I hope you know that if I die, there will be no one to put you back in that nifty Sacred Grove place of yours. If you don't like that, I guess you should have thought of it earlier because it's too late! I've made my decision, and you're just going to have to live with it. I hope you like it up here! Ha ha ha!"

_Oh gosh, I'm talking to a sword. Maybe I really do have, what did Yeto call it, _head crazies.

_Ha ha ha!_

The ghost rattled its lantern menacingly again. Link drew the sword, got up, and rushed the stupid thing. The ghost jumped and fled. A few seconds later, it realized that it could not, in fact, be harmed by people or swords. Deeply embarrassed, the ghost advanced, rattling furiously. But Link was already disappearing into the living room.

Link went straight to the kitchen. If he wanted to journey into the unknown depths of the mansion to fight a monster yeti, he was going to need to bring food. He couldn't see Yeto minding if he raided the kitchen, considering the circumstances. Not _really_.

There was still a lot of soup left, so he filled up two of his three bottles with it. The third bottle had lantern oil in it, and that had to stay—he wasn't about to go exploring in a run-down mountain mansion without extra fuel for his lantern. Besides, he didn't want to put food in that bottle without putting a fairy in first to clean it out.

Speaking of food—what to have for breakfast?

NOT more soup. There was such thing as too much reekfish in one week, and that limit had been reached and thoroughly abused a long time ago. If the soup wasn't so easy to carry, he wouldn't have packed any in the first place.

The remains of the two wolfos Yeto had caught yesterday were next to the reekfish carcass on the chopping block…

Definitely not. Link was practically a wolf himself.

Thankfully, there were three barrels of highly edible vegetables against one wall. Link helped himself to a potato and what looked like a carrot. He found a wheel of goat cheese on a shelf and instantly recognized Fado's handiwork—possibly even his own, in imitation of his employer's. The cheese had come from Ordon.

Link sat down on a box. He wanted to be home. He wanted to herd Fado's goats into their barn, he wanted to play with Colin and the other kids, he wanted to be bossed around by Malo and Ilia, he wanted to sit on his bed late at night wondering why he didn't fit in, he wanted to catch toads by the stream by Russl's house, he wanted to be yelled at by that mean guy every time he strayed into the pumpkin patch…

But he couldn't be home, so he broke off a large hunk of the cheese. That and the vegetables would have to be breakfast because he didn't have time to look for anything else.

As he ate, he was able to recover most of the shattered pieces of his confidence. Despite the pain of homesickness, he was glad to be reminded of where he came from. Glad to hold in his hand a connection to those who would miss him the most if he didn't survive. Those who would be the most proud of him if he did.

"You don't have a home anymore, do you?" he asked the sword. "The people who made you are gone now, right? Is that why you fight for the Powers of Good? Because that's all you have left?"

But the sword had always fought primarily for the Powers of Good. Because, ultimately, that was what should be fought for.

"I'm going to stop talking to you now," Link said. "You're freaking me out."

Once Link had finished breakfast, he walked to the door that the monster had come through the other night. He paused with his hand on the knob.

He could try challenging the monster in the kitchen—stomp around, shout, whatever. But there was a big soup pot over a fire in here. That could be a huge advantage to whatever combatant managed to back the other one into it.

Link didn't feel especially lucky that day.

He could go to the living room and cause a ruckus, but there was a fire in there too. There was a big patch of ice (and that ghost!) in the parlor.

If he was going to try and get the monster to come to him, it would be in a room that no one could manipulate. His advantage lay in a weapon that the monster feared. The best way he could use that advantage was to find a close approximation to an arena.

If he found the monster before it found him, it would be very helpful to know of a suitable room to run to before they fought.

He gritted his teeth and opened the door.

Find a place to fight. Try and get the monster to come. Look for the monster if it doesn't come. Defeat the monster, save Yeta. Save Yeto, if possible. Save Midna. Stay alive. Stay alive. _Stay alive._

Ha ha ha ha!

Before Midna had left, they'd each agreed not to die.

He hoped she would understand.


	10. Chapter 10: Progress, Of Sorts

Link's imagination told him that when he opened the door the monster had entered the kitchen from the night before last, he would find a spectacularly horrifying beast lair riddled with skeletons.

The door did not lead to a spectacularly horrifying beast lair riddled with skeletons.

It led to a completely harmless, even boring room full of boxes. The monster wasn't even there (and this would be a terrible spot to fight it if it was because there was a large patch of ice in the middle).

Link let out his breath (he'd been holding it?). Okay. Okay, this was nice. He could live with this. Wonderful. Next stop… that door. That one, over there. Maybe the monster's (not) behind that door (either).

Oh.

There was a grate over the door, just like the grates over the doors in the living room.

Perhaps there was a door behind the boxes piled up in front of that far wall, and the monster had had to climb over the boxes to get to the kitchen? Or could it have dropped down from that overhanging balcony? But Link didn't want to climb over boxes or up onto a balcony….

Then he saw the button in the middle of the ice patch.

Oh, so it was one of THOSE doors.

In his travels, Link would often find doors that could only be opened by pressing some button or otherwise manipulating the room. The "room is the key" setup made no sense whatsoever to him. He'd been quite surprised to find that arrangement so common in Hyrule; in Ordon, everybody just locked their door with keys, and no one could get in, not even if they were smart enough to figure out which buttons to put pots on or what propellers to throw a boomerang at. Perhaps Link usually only found such doors in old, abandoned dungeons because the downsides of the design had been discovered a long time ago (_If you don't come out of that bathroom in five seconds I'm going to start working on the puzzle that keeps the door locked!_) Well. He couldn't really complain; it made his life easier often enough to just solve the puzzle and get on with things instead of having to hunt down a key. Or NOT solve the puzzle… this door was "locked" with a _grate_, and Link had a plan.

He sat down and pulled his iron boots out of his gear bag. He'd stopped questioning whatever magic let him store them in such a small pouch a long time ago because it WORKED so well… if there was some horrible, universe-bending secret to it, he honestly didn't want to know. He carried the boots across the ice to the button and set one on top of it.

_Fshhhh_, went the grate over the door as it opened.

Link carried the other boot over to the door and set it down, right under where the grate had been.

Then he went back to the ice and retrieved the first boot from the button, returning it to his gear pouch.

_Clank_, went the grate as it slammed down on the other boot.

There _were _a few big crates sitting on the ice that could perhaps be carefully manipulated so one of them ended up resting on top of the button. But there comes a point when you've solved so many little puzzles that you get smart enough to think of ways not to have to solve the puzzle in the first place.

Link pulled up the grate and rested it on his back. He was about to open the door, pick up his iron boot, and go through when he realized that he _wouldn't be able to come back through the door if he let the grate fall back down_. If this one was anything like the ones in the living room, there was some mechanism that held the bottom part in place once it had been shut.

The kitchen and the living room weren't necessarily any safer than the other parts of the mansion. But the kitchen had food, and… and little delusions are just a part of life, okay?

Link pulled the grate back down onto the iron boot and went to the kitchen in search of something to prop it open with. When a few cursory glances found him nothing, he wandered into the living room.

Books on a shelf! Perfect.

The books wouldn't fit in his gear bag (DON'T QUESTION IT! DON'T QUESTION IT!), so Link had to carry them a few at a time.

The fact that his injuries left him unable to carry more than three books at once might have some significance, he mused, if he ever wanted to rethink the sense of hunting down a monster yeti. But he wasn't going to rethink that, so it didn't matter.

Nope.

As Link stacked the books under the grate, he noticed how incredibly old they were. Some held stories, but others seemed to be about things like magic and building robots. Building robots with magic. It looked like the books were important historical artifacts, perhaps Hyrule's last remaining windows to lost knowledge. Were you really allowed to use that to prop open a door?

Link sighed.

He really didn't have time for this…

He put the books back and returned with a chair. He should have thought to use a chair earlier—it would have meant only one trip. The wood was old, but the thing probably wouldn't break under the pressure of the grate.

Probably.

When Link finally opened the door, he was sorely disappointed to find a small room with four heavy stone walls. There was a small opening in one of the walls, but that was blocked by ice. There was no way to move forward.

After all that work…!

Unless…

The floor was all snow, and, judging by the wind whistling through the opening above the ice barrier, this room was more or less an "outside" area. Part of one wall had crumbled. The back of Link's mind searched for those huge, shovel-y paws so he could _dig dig dig dig _his way through that patch of snow. _Digging is nice._

Link didn't have access to those paws, but he had to find a way into the rest of the mansion somehow. The other two living room doors were locked, so he could either dig through here or try and climb over those boxes in the room he'd just come through.

After all that work to get here, there was no question as to which option he'd choose. Besides, you can go through a hole in the snow any direction you want. If you use a chair to climb over a high wall of boxes, that chair won't be on the other side to help you back over.

Especially if something's chasing you.

He squatted down and began to push snow away with his good hand. After a moment's thought, he got out his clawshot and dug with that.

Progress was definite but slow. Link's arm began to ache. Could he afford to risk wearing out the only arm he had the use of?

Sure.

Almost…there…

Finally. A hole big enough for his head. Curious and in need of a break from digging, Link got on his back and eased his head through the opening. He could see the sky. A courtyard? Or maybe the rest of the mansion consisted of a patch of snow surrounded by crumbling walls. Maybe once he was through this hole, he wouldn't have to do any more exploring… no more puzzles, no more dragging around furniture…

But he never got to finish contemplating because at that moment a wolfos sprang up out of nowhere and locked its jaws around his forehead.

Link almost shouted. Perhaps he would have if he had only seen the shadowy form of the monster and not the eyes. Not the fangs. Perhaps he would have shouted if he hadn't felt its breath on his face or felt its terrible strength. He couldn't let the monster find him like this.

In a remarkable feat of willpower, Link left it at one quiet "_Gahh!_" as he struggled to pull his head back through the hole. His legs were stronger than the wolfos's, and he made progress backwards, but the animal's grip was strong. For several minutes, they struggled at the mouth of the hole, unable to fit through together. Finally, the wolfos let go and trotted off, its nose raw and bleeding from its contact with the wall.

Link quickly pulled his head back through the hole and shrank back against the opposite wall, shivering violently. He hadn't really noticed how _cold _the room was, thanks to the proximity of the ice and the surrounding environment.

Hadn't really noticed how _stupid _it was to stick your head through a hole because you didn't know what was on the other side.

_Idiot,_ he thought, gently touching the side of his head and finding it predictably wet, finding his fingers predictably red.

_How did I even last this long? Why would I even do something like that? Is it because Midna's not here to ask me if someone dropped me when I was little? I thought she was annoying and bossy sometimes, but… we could talk things through with each other, get advice… and there's no doubt she cared about me… well, she did eventually, anyway… I never knew I'd be so lost without her…_

But he hadn't shouted. The monster wouldn't surprise him here. He still had a chance to face it on his own terms.

_How is that going to make a difference? If _THIS_ happens when I go up against a wolfos, how am I going to fight a monster yeti?_

Link sneezed violently and hugged himself as tightly as the pain in his arm would allow. That pain was greater now. Shielding the injury hadn't been his first priority when he'd struggled to escape the wolfos.

Freezing. Badly shaken. Wounded. Bleeding. Perfectly alone.

_If I run into the monster, I'm finished. Unless it offers to jump off a cliff for me. FINISHED. The only reason I'm going after it at all is because I thought it would be cool to go out with a fight. But this isn't cool. This is nerve-wracking and painful. I might as well shout, scream, and stamp my feet right now—make it come, get this over with. _

That would be easy. Very easy. But what about Yeta? What about Yeto? What about all of the people who counted on him?

What about Midna?

He closed his eyes and rested his head against the wall, breathing evenly, trying to calm down.

He was not automatically finished. There was hope. He had the Master Sword. He had people to fight for.

Also, he wished all of this could be over and he could just go home.

When he opened his eyes again, the meager bits of calm he had managed to restore vanished like smoke because the monster's bright, red eye was gazing at him through the hole. Half a second later, it was gone.

Link stared, frozen in terror. Had he really just seen the creature? Or was he just imagining things?

Outside the hole, wolfos feet crunched through the snow.

Would they be there if the monster had been around?

Five, ten, fifteen minutes of waiting and listening yielded no indication that the monster was anywhere nearby. Eventually, Link crept nervously back to the hole and began to widen it again. There was nothing else to do. And if he ever heard the horrible sound of the chair in the other room snapping to bits under the weight of the grate, he faced a smaller risk of completely losing his mind if he was digging dutifully instead of sitting around and feeling sorry for himself.

The wolfos knew he was there, and some of them were even helping him dig. He was glad to have brought out the clawshot. Whenever the wolfos got too close, one punch from the claw was enough to send them all packing.

Eventually, _finally_, the hole was large enough for Link to crawl through. He waited, ears straining for monster-like sounds, a good while before he dared enter. Then he scattered the waiting wolfos and slid through. He bumped his arm on the unforgiving stone wall a few times, but being on the other side was worth it.

There. The courtyard. It was only a courtyard after all; there was still a lot of mansion around it. A lot of places for a monster to hide. The snow here was too deep to fight in, but at least he had access to more of the mansion. He hadn't found a good "arena" yet, but he'd made progress. Of sorts.

As Link struggled through the snow, wolfos danced around him, jaws snapping. One of them had a bleeding nose and a red-stained mouth. Link had to frequently stop and drive them away with the Master Sword.

The sun marched dutifully along its daily path. If it had been close to noon when Link had woken up… it certainly wasn't noon now. This was taking a lot more time than he had anticipated. As he thought of Midna and how he had to save her, he wondered, not for the first time or for the last time, if he was already too late.

Link waded onward. The best he could do for her at the moment was stay alive.

He didn't think to wonder why Yeto had gone hunting for wolfos on Snowpeak Mountain if there were several right here in the mansion. But later, when he returned to the living room after a surprisingly fruitless attempt at challenging the monster, he did wonder who in the world had unlocked the other two doors while he was gone…


	11. Chapter 11: The Bystander

_If I don't get help, Link will die. And it will be my fault._

It was that all-eclipsing, horrible thought that had brought Midna, panting and barely conscious, to the ghostly golden wolf, the skeletal knight that taught Link the art of sword play.

She hadn't known who else to turn to. She'd run through her options many times after she'd struggled fruitlessly against the curse by herself for a good while. She'd come up with virtually nothing. This world of Light, with all of its charm and wonder, was poorly staffed with sorcerers.

Renado from Karikariko was a shaman. Oh sure. Which was why he'd asked _Link_ to help the Gorons free their clan leader from the fused shadow and eliminate some of the baddies from their mine. Though it had taken him days, Link had been able to solve those problems with a handful of items and a sword. The true Twili sorcerers Midna had known (were any still alive?) could have slapped that place into shape by clapping their hands. _Ok, ok, not really_. But still.

Princess Zelda was a sorceress. She hadn't let on as much to Link, but Midna had known from the start. Magic users know one another. But Zelda was unreachable at the moment. And she had already given Midna far more help than she had deserved… far more help than the poor Princess of Light could safely give…

The golden wolf had been Midna's only, last desperate hope.

She'd found the ghost waiting patiently in Karikariko Graveyard, just as he had promised Link he would be. Warping to the village had taken most of her remaining strength. Crawling to the graveyard had claimed most of what was left.

"Help…" she'd managed to choke out, mere minutes, perhaps seconds away from losing everything she was to the constricting black hatred in her head.

_Can he even help me? Or did my mistake doom me and Link from the start…?_

The wolf had leapt at her.

He'd taken her to his quiet, misty universe.

She'd been surprised to find herself once more the proud Twili woman Zant had heartlessly transformed into an imp, what seemed like ages ago…

Yes, she'd been returned to normal, and she was also lying on the ground, bound from head to foot by icky black vine things.

But that had been okay, because, to her great relief, the dark whispers had completely left her mind and her headache had faded away. She'd felt fine, if a little sleep-deprived, and she'd been immensely happy to know that Link was safe from her malignant possessed form once more. Icky black vines—ha! She'd felt ready to take on anything.

The golden wolf had been watching her silently, in the predictable skeletal knight form he always assumed here.

"How…"

The golden wolf had explained that this universe was his and that he could manipulate it as he saw fit. He had decided to bring only what was true in order to separate the invasive magic from Midna's mind and person, giving her a chance to defeat it.

"Huh?"

He'd further explained that every sentient life form has an unbreakable soul and that, while possession magic can interfere with a soul's ties to a body, it can never truly corrupt a being's original state. He'd chosen to bring only the original states of Midna and the curse to his universe. Normally, he'd continued, original states are very hard to get at through magic, but when someone is transporting objects and beings to temporary sub-universes, it becomes easy to separate all of the components of the incoming matter. Of course, he'd explained, while it is possible to use a sub-universe to take a magical system (such as a cursed being like Midna) and turn it into a different form (such as Midna in her true form wrapped up in magic vines), that new form cannot be transferred back into reality; all beings, objects, and magics will leave sub-universes in the same form they started with. However, he'd continued, _events _in sub-universes can have lasting effects…

He'd said some more things too. Midna hadn't understood a lot of the explanation. Apparently, the curse had turned into vines? And the curse would go away real life if she could only struggle out of the vines in this world? And also she was pretty again, for now? She'd thought that, right about then, she ought to be ashamed for spending most of her magic theory classes chatting with her friends. _Oh, but those were the days._ Even though those backstabbing girls had wanted nothing more than the status that came with being friends with the princess… and the sad part was, she'd been just as nasty as them, back then…

What had happened to that snotty little… Had Link and Zelda and the beautiful Light World changed her so much?

"What? I'm paying attention."

Once Midna had been satisfied that she (and Link) were, more or less, completely safe, she'd told the golden wolf her story. Then she'd managed to fall asleep somehow. She hadn't slept well, but she'd slept, and that had done her a world of good.

That was the first day.

It was hard to tell what time did in this hazy place, but it had to have been many, many hours after she'd woken when, despite her determination, despite everything that was at stake, despite her fierce pride and the dislike she felt towards her benefactor (she knew it wasn't nice to dislike him after he'd helped her, but she couldn't help it), she began to realize that there was absolutely nothing she could do to escape the black vines.

After about half a day, her hope and relief had turned into something bordering insanity.

"Please, help me," Midna said, not for the first time.

"I cannot," the skeletal knight replied, not for the first time.

"You keep saying that!" Midna shrieked. "Why can't you help me? Why is it that you can turn me back into a Twili and take the curse out of me but you can't be REALLY useful and kill it already? Why? I can't take much more of you standing there watching me like a creeper and not helping me when I KNOW you can!"

"You do not listen to my explanations," the skeletal knight said. "You do not choose to understand them."

She gave him a look.

"In this existence, I am bound to a single purpose, my Lady" the skeletal knight said simply. "That purpose is to train a warrior in the ways of the sword. I am a bystander with respect to other matters. I am bending the rules already, bringing you here. You must help yourself."

"So if you help me, who's going to know?" Midna asked weakly. "And what does bringing me here and making me pretty again have to do with training a swordsman anyway? I'm begging you, _save me_! I _can't_ help myself. I've tried. I've been trying for forever. See? Look at me. I'm struggling! Watch this: _urrrk, uuughh, eeeek, ohh noooo it's goott meeee_… SEE? NOTHING!"

Oh. So_ there_ was the snotty little princess from before. Ha ha. Maybe Mr. Shiny Puppy had a point about original states being incorruptible.

"You must save yourself, my Lady," the ghost said. "I am sorry. Your curse would convince you to kill the swordsman I was training, and I am able to protect my purpose by holding you back. But applying that reasoning only goes so far, and I have taken it to its limit. If Link dies, there will be other swordsmen, I am sure. I wish I could do more for you, but I cannot.

"Also. You may not have understood what I was telling you earlier, when I explained what you must do to free yourself. Your task is not as straightforward as simply escaping those vines. You have been cursed twice, my Lady. That mass of vines is a combination of two different magics. One is the spell that holds you as an imp, and that spell is much too strong for you loose yourself from, even here. Only the curse from the dark crystal is within your power to destroy. You have been unsuccessful because you have been fighting both sets of vines. To free yourself, you must figure out which is which. Then you must figure out how to defeat the weaker curse."

Midna tried to analyze the ropes. They were as indistinguishable as ever. She tried to pull at different individual vines with her teeth. No luck. So she was supposed to untie herself from one curse while she was still tied up with the other? How in the world…

"Why didn't you tell me that before?" she finally asked. "I mean, why didn't you tell me again if you thought I hadn't understood you?"

"It was only clear to me now that you did not know," the knight said.

"You just told me I'd been going about it the wrong way for hours!" Midna said. "I think you knew!"

"It seemed wise to give you an update only after you had seen the true value of understanding," the knight said. "It goes against my rules to be overly helpful where my purpose is not concerned and when I am not specifically asked for guidance. That is the way of things."

"I hate you" Midna cried softly. "I'm never going to… don't look at me! Go away!"

"But you_ must_ beat the weaker curse, my Lady," the skeleton said. "It is focused on killing you. It has long since realized that possession is impossible here."

"It's… trying to kill me?" Midna asked, horrified.

"It only tries," the knight said. "You are not in a great deal of pain, correct? The curse does not appear to be much of a threat to your life at the moment. I can't say I know its full range of capabilities, but I doubt it was designed to act in that form. It is weaker than you think it is."

"Just like how _I'm_ weaker than _you_ think I am," Midna spat.

"Your doubts and insecurities bind you more tightly than your adversary," the knight said.

"I could slap you," Midna said. "If I could slap you, _I could _so _slap you._"

"I am of light, and so is this world," the skeleton remarked. "Being here for a long time cannot be good for you. You have already been here for a long time as it is."

"_Maybe that's why I'm so spectacularly bad at this, then!_" Midna shouted, as loudly as the constricting malice would allow. "I CAN'T DO IT! I CAN'T! If you still refuse to help me, you can go ahead and SHUT YOUR SKULL!"

"Then I will help you, my Lady," the skeletal knight said.

"What?" Midna asked.

"I will help you help yourself, my Lady," the knight said darkly. "As a bystander by law, I should not share information of the outside world with you. However, I am not technically forbidden from inviting you to analyze information that you yourself gave me earlier. I did not want to have to bend my rules further, but you leave me no choice.

"You know that only _part_ of Zant's stone traveled with you when you teleported. You know that the magic's target is Link. You know that you left the remaining pieces on Snowpeak Mountain, where Link is. You know that the stone's magic is effective in taking root in creatures and controlling them. You know that Snowpeak is inhabited by a number of creatures— including an unknown number of yetis—that, without exception, cannot resist magic as well as you can. Connect these thoughts, and use your conclusion to find the strength to break free. There is not a great deal of time."

Silence.

"You thought through all that…" Midna said, anger welling up inside her and blackening her tone. "And you didn't say _anything _until now? You let me keep you from warning someone… from killing the cursed creatures that are even closer to Link than I am… you didn't… What part of 'Link broke his arm as he was sledding down the mountain' didn't you UNDERSTAND when I told you what happened? He's not fit to fight a wolfos, much less a cursed fiend! He's not fit to take a short hike on the mountainside! He's not, he's not even fit to _make himself a sandwich_ for crying out loud!"

She thrashed around, willing the black ropes to die, trying once more, in vain, to counter their magic with her own. She tried to target different parts of the tangled mass, lashing out blindly with magic, hoping that she could find the correct curse to fight… but no. Nothing happened.

She sobbed in hopeless anger.

No one in the world would look after her Link like she would. Now he was in trouble, and the only one who knew to save him other than her was an _idiot_.

Or maybe she was an idiot too. Why hadn't any of that crossed her mind before?

The pieces of the crystal she'd left behind?

Why?

And why had she gone after the artifact alone in the first place?

At least she cared…

But caring wasn't leading her to any of the insights that her hated skeletal mentor thought she ought to be capable of making.

Caring hadn't stopped her from grabbing the crystal.

Being an idiot, it seemed, could cause much more damage than caring could fix…

"You are Link's greatest threat right now," the knight said simply. "I have contained you, and I am helping you save yourself. You have the potential to be Link's greatest hope. You can go to him and protect him once you are free. Then you will be much more valuable to him than me. I cannot warn him. I cannot kill his adversaries."

_But what If I don't ever get free?_

Hey," Midna said quietly. "Bystander. Let me go."

"My Lady?" the knight asked.

"Let me go," Midna said again. "Let me go, let that thing possess me, eat my soul, whatever. I can't get it off of me, and Link can't afford for you to be caught up like this. He doesn't need me like he needs you right now."

"I disagree, my Lady," the knight said.

"How can you…" Midna started. "UURGH! You can yank people into safety zones! Of course you can help Link more than I can! How can you think it's a good idea to sit here and wait for me to figure out how to use my little princess fists to beat up an evil curse, with Link's life on the line? You don't care about Link like I do, and that makes you blind. There will be other swordsmen for you if he dies, but there won't be any more Links for me! Don't even _think_ you know what's best for him!"

"You speak truly, my Lady," the knight said. "What course of action does your perspective show you that I should take?"

"Bring Link here too!" Midna said. "Then he'll be safe from the rest of the curse! And he can cut me free with the Master Sword!"

"My lady," the golden wolf said sadly, "If I were permitted to arrange beneficial meetings between those in need, how could I continue along the path of my purpose in good conscience? I am capable of compassion, but that cannot drive me in death as it did in life. I am truly sorry, but I cannot bring Link here to save you. Any help I give outside of the bounds of my purpose must be highly indirect."

"Then just bring Link here," Midna said. "Forget about me and bring Link here. Keep him... *sniff* keep him safe. He's hurt! I don't know what I'd do if something happened to him and I could have done something to stop it! And… this is… _this is all my fault to begin with…_"

"I cannot keep Link in my world indefinitely," the knight said. "Zant's curse will always be a danger. How can that be a permanent solution? Who or what will remove the threat, if not you?"

"Link is staying with two powerful yetis," Midna said. "They'll… they'll defend their home if anything shows up. The curse can't use any of my complicated magic. The yetis can… can probably stop me from hurting anyone anymore. Me and anything else that comes. You can let Link come back out once it's safe."

"You are asking me to put you at great risk, my Lady," the skeleton said. "If the yetis will keep their home safe, will they not keep Link safe too?"

"Not as safe as you can keep him!" Midna almost yelled. "What if they lose? What if, what if… Look, you go find Link and put him in this world. THEN you can worry about what to do next. If the danger doesn't go away before you have to let him go, scoop up his biggest threat and hold onto that until you're "allowed" to bring him back! Keep doing that until he's safe! There must be other yetis out there, right? They'll feel really threatened by the cursed things, and… oh, and hey, someone's bound to notice if a cursed imp floats by, right? Maybe I'll be followed by someone who knows what to do…"

She struggled even harder, but the vines did not give way.

"You are rambling, my Lady," the skeleton said. "I am not convinced that transporting Link to this world would be of great value. I think it is best to leave things as they are. Though my world weakens those of shadow, it certainly weakens those of both shadow and darkness more. The curse will surely fade faster than you will. There will surely be a chance for you to beat it."

"Don't leave this up to me!" Midna said. "I couldn't… I can't… just keep Link safe! He's the one who the goddesses picked as the hero of the World of Light. He's the great sacred wolf, the hero of the shadows foretold by Twili legend. And he's actually good at being a hero! I may be a princess, but that doesn't mean I ever… Look. I think Link is just a little bit more important than me. I think he deserves a chance just a little bit more than I do. Please."

She stopped struggling.

"I can't save him," she said. "You have to be the one. Don't leave him helpless. Don't let him die because of my mistakes."

They looked at each other for some time.

Then Midna looked away.

_Am I making the right decision? Could I really figure out how to break the curse if I tried hard enough? Because that would be the best solution to this mess… but no! Trying would take time that Link can't spare! I can't wager Link's life on my ability to solve an insanely hard puzzle with next to no help! I mean, it's my fault I'm like this in the first place. That should say something about what happens when things are left to me. But if I can't save him and no one defeats all of the creatures that the crystal has surely mutated by now, that's endangering him all the more… Link! Why didn't you ever tell me that you're my confidence?_

She didn't struggle anymore. She only waited, allowing indecision to be her choice.

"As you wish, my Lady," the knight said finally, bowing deeply. "You do have the ability to free yourself. But if you have need for me to act in your stead, I will. Your concern is touching. Your heart shines brighter than those of many that dwell in the light."

"Like I need your approval," the Twilight Princess hissed. "Just shut up and save Link. Can you get to him before I do? The curse doesn't know how to make me warp, but it'll still be able to make me float."

"I will have to travel to Snowpeak on foot," the wolf said. "I can only choose my location when I am summoned, and I have already been summoned. But I can run very quickly."

"That sounds risky," Midna said. "But with the other pieces of the curse out there… go ahead. Release me."

The knight bowed once more.

Midna's last thought before she returned to the World of Light and lost herself was this:

_Oh. Those yetis are probably going to hurt me pretty bad if I bother them. I promised Link I wouldn't die, didn't I?_


	12. Chapter 12: Glow

The hat lay on the floor where it had fallen. It didn't look any worse for the wear—in this light, it even looked newer than it had this morning, despite being in a rumpled little heap.

Link stared at it for a good while. Then he moved a hand in its direction. An insufficient action. He knelt down and picked it up, slowly and carefully, trying not to hurt his back any more than he had to.

There. He had the hat again.

He stood and looked at it in his hand. Looked through it.

It was easy, to hold the hat. It was easy to stand there. His legs would hold him for hours. Even so, his mind screamed out in rebellion at the idea of expending effort to put the hat back on. The prospect of taking just one step from where he stood was dizzying.

It had been a long day, a day he shouldn't have survived. Night was falling. He hadn't expected to make it this far. When is it appropriate to stop and rest when you're tired and there's no end in sight but everyone still needs you?

Without thinking, he pressed the green fabric to his face, against the scrape he'd earned a short time earlier after getting knocked to the ground and being unable to properly stop his fall.

_I shouldn't have won, _he thought_. _Then he realized what he was doing with the hat and figured that Midna would scold him if she saw him rubbing an open sore with the germ equivalent of an ant farm.

If germs were even real. Midna had told him about them, a horrifying facet of reality only discoverable through magic. Her civilization had them, and she insisted that his did too, though she admitted to having never checked for herself.

_I shouldn't have won. But I did win. It's dead._

It _was _dead. It had finally stopped moving, and the great red stain wasn't growing as rapidly as it had been. Most importantly, nothing was whirling that deadly ball and chain around anymore.

It was dead. They had fought, and Link had won. He had proved stronger.

He didn't feel stronger.

He stared at it, a mysterious armor-clad creature that was (assuming that its uncovered orange tail was representative of the rest of it) some kind of lizard.

He should be happy, he should feel encouraged; instead, he couldn't shake the feeling that this lizard would have stood a better chance of finishing what he started, a better chance of saving the yetis and Midna.

And he'd gone and killed it.

He moved the hat away from his stinging face. Germs or no, it would stick if he held it there for too long.

If he could afford to sleep, if he _dared _sleep, he could sleep for days.

_I wish I could do exactly what I did when I finally found the Master Sword, after saving Midna and getting the Fused Shadow from the Lakebed Temple: warp home, draw the curtains, close my eyes, and not wake up until I hear breaking glass. _

_Only preferably without the breaking glass part._

_Oh, Midna._

_She can sleep in my shadow. She wasn't nearly as exhausted as I was._

_She got into all my stuff. _

_She was so fascinated by it, and she didn't break anything, so I guess I don't care._

_She did break something. Of course she did. That was where the sound of breaking glass came from._

_I forget what it was._

Link shoved the hat back on his head. He reached out and clenched one of the bars along the side of the room, almost angrily. _Move! Move, move, move! What's wrong with you? _Even if it would be appropriate to rest at some point, here was not the place, and now was not the time. His thought patterns were growing an eerie shade of arbitrary, drifting threateningly towards to a state of sanity marginally more palatable but drastically less practical than the one he currently clung to.

_Forward, go forward, move forward, don't just stand there, they're counting on—_

He wasn't thinking—wasn't thinking of where his feet were going—and walked right into something very hard.

He looked down at the heavy metal ball that his foe had attacked him with. Its size and location betrayed it immediately as the thing he'd stubbed his toe against.

He stared.

What, what now? He was supposed to be upset or annoyed or something, because he'd stubbed his toe? Things still worked like that?

Speaking of injuries…

Sick with worry, he put his free hand gingerly against his bandaged arm, checking to see how it was.

It was _bad. _Emphatically so. The fight had not been kind. The whole day had not been kind. Yeto's careful effort to set the arm had been significantly undone. Link's stomach churned. He _knew _that already. Since he'd felt his arm three minutes ago. He shouldn't feel it any more. But he probed it once more, carefully, and again tasted fear.

Back in Ordon, you took your injuries to the Healing Spring and all was well. Adventuring in Hyrule was less safe, but there were fairies, red chuchus, new healing springs, and other options for healing wounds, if you knew where to look.

Link had seen more than his fair share of physical injuries, but _not usually for very long_.

Would a wound even heal on its own if you didn't take matters into your own hands?

And was there ever a point where an injury got so bad that all the magic healing in the world couldn't restore it?

Link prodded his arm again, belligerently (but gently).

He was starting to forget what it was like to live free of pain. Was that normal? Was that a bad sign?

He didn't want this.

He couldn't afford this.

He could barely afford to walk around. He definitely couldn't afford to fight armored lizard monsters. It certainly should have won. And even though it had not claimed victory…

_Red memories._

_An ill-timed feint for the door._

_Using his back to block what could not be dodged._

_Falling roughly to the floor._

_His injured arm on fire._

_Being surprised that he could make such a strange and pathetic sound. _

_Scrambling to his feet._

_Picking up the Master Sword from where it had fallen._

_Sprinting back the way he had come…_

…even though the armored monster had not claimed victory, that encounter had been the most expensive yet.

_You've done enough, you idiot,_ his senses wept. _Sit down! Stop fighting! It's not worth it!_

But then what?

It was all well and good to be discouraged, to feel helpless, but every time it occurred to him that he could actually make the decision to quit…

He could remember that other day, that other great weariness, that other "adventure"… the Lakebed Temple, Midna in trouble, the curse, the Master Sword. A sequence of events to make you want to sleep for weeks. It _had _made him want to sleep for weeks.

She'd been worth it then.

After a soul-crushing several weeks of running around, perpetually drenched, hunting for keys and fighting monsters, he'd been ready to warp home the minute they'd left the Lakebed Temple. Then Midna had needed him, and he'd raced her to Hyrule Castle.

If Midna wasn't worth it, who or what was?

And it wasn't as if he was fighting entirely alone.

The Master Sword was on the stone floor, where he'd dropped it in exhaustion after defeating the armor lizard.

Something told him that a sword like that was to be borrowed, not kept.

Something told him that there would come a time when he would return it to its home in Faron Woods.

But that time had not yet come.

Until it did, something told him that he and the ancient blade were meant to fight as one.

And the ancient blade was as ready as it had ever been.

Link's arm was throbbing dangerously. His face stung. His back ached. The rest of the day's collection of wounds cried out in their own respective ways. Fighting a monster yeti like this would surely have disastrous results. There would be no shame in giving up.

But somehow, as hard as it was to keep going, giving up would be harder still.

Link walked over to the Master Sword and picked it up, trying to ignore the pain in his back as he bent over.

He had as good as lost.

But he hadn't come here to win or lose. He had come here as a logical next step, and he still had logical next steps left.

_Keep going! If you're not going to quit, MOVE. Everyone needs you. You have to keep moving. Don't stop. You can rest later. This will be over soon enough._

When he stood, firmly holding the sword, he was smiling.

Okay. He could move. That was do-able.

The dangerous amusement he'd felt when he'd been talking to the sword was back. Only now it was much bigger than mere amusement. It was the dark freedom that blazes to life in the absence of any of the other kinds.

He couldn't leave the mansion, he couldn't save Midna, he couldn't heal his arm, and he couldn't fight easily or well. But he could put his hat back on. He could pick up his sword again. He could put one foot in front of the other. He could sit down and take a break, or he could keep on looking for Yeta.

He put the Master Sword back in its sheath and picked up the handle of the ball and chain his enemy had dropped. He was the king of the world. Ha ha ha, maybe the ball and chain would fit if he tried to feed it into his pouch.

To his great surprise and almost childish delight, it fit perfectly (DON'T QUESTION IT!).

None of the other things in the room Link tried would fit in the pouch. The room was useless to him now. He ran to the door, threw it open, and looked around the courtyard, just in case the monster was waiting patiently for him.

It was, actually.

A distant shape, something huge with red eyes, ducked out of sight the instant they made eye contact.

"I'm gonna get you!" Link shouted, tearing off after it. "RAAAAHHHHH!"

If there had been other times when he'd felt more _alive_, they were few in number. Nonetheless, it was nowhere to be found by the time he got to the spot where he'd seen it. The deep snow had stopped him from running very fast at all. The deep snow, and fatigue. And also the wolfos that had attached itself to his leg (he swung at it with the Master Sword, and it vanished under the snow).

That just wasn't right. It wasn't fair. He was ready to fight Yeta's creature, ready to watch it pound him to a pulp, but it wouldn't come out. What was wrong with it? It was a huge, slobbering monster. _Those were supposed to try and eat you!_ Was it really that scared of the Master Sword?

His mind flashed to anger, then grew devious.

_That stupid blankie would come out of hiding if I tried to take the mirror shard,_ he thought.

_Taking the mirror shard will make it come._ Perfect. It was the kind of insight he had been searching for since he'd first realized how shy his opponent was.

The mirror shard was in the bedroom. He had heard over the course of his stay that the bedroom was on the third floor.

There was a freezard on top of the ladder that led up there.

Ha ha ha ha.

Good one.

Once he could confront Yeta, he would either die or win a way to look for Midna. Until then, all he could do was worry.

Threatening the mirror shard was the only way to make that confrontation happen. The only way that he knew of.

He'd get up there.

_I'll bet I could get up on the roof somehow. I'll bet it's broken in places—this mansion is really old. I could find a hole in the roof, and I could get up there with my clawshot and walk along until I get to a spot above the bedroom where I can drop down. Then I wouldn't have to worry about getting past the freezard._

Climbing along an icy roof in the dark. Brilliant. He liked it.

Around two hours later, he was falling onto the ramp that led up to the bedroom, more physically exhausted but no less resolute.

The impact of landing jarred his arm cruelly, but he hadn't fallen _on _it, so he wasn't too worried. If anything, he was relieved. Relieved not to have to be on the roof anymore.

Ha ha ha. He'd actually done it. He hadn't fallen to his death. Maybe he was invincible or something.

He walked to the bedroom door.

It was large, heavy, made of metal, and locked.

Link had a number of bombs left over from never making good use of the mansion's cannons, but he knew that bombs didn't open locked metal doors. You figure out certain things after you explore enough dungeons.

He stared at it.

_Surely… there must be… some way…_

He wavered, unsteady.

_What if… or maybe…_

He sat down.

_There were windows. Perhaps if I got back on the roof…_

The ground was cold. He shivered.

_Or maybe I could use an arrow to pick the lock… if I knew how to pick locks, that is…_

He shivered again, more violently this time. He'd found enough rupees over the course of the day to fuel his magic armor for most of the Great Roof Adventure, but now he was broke once more. It was dangerous to be outside in this weather. He couldn't keep sitting here.

_Could I cut through one of the links of one of the chains with the Master Sword, if I went at it for long enough?_

He put his face in his good hand. He took several deep breaths.

What he needed was the key.

He had spent too much energy getting up here to start searching for it tonight. The logical next step was to go back to the living room, start another fire in the fireplace, and sleep. He could look for the key the next day.

_What if Midna doesn't have until the next day?_

"Wchoouuuwwwww," said the freezard by the ladder.

"Stop that! I'm trying to think," Link said in a broken voice.

"Wchoouuuwwwwwwww," the freezard said.

"You don't know what I'm—WHY AM I TALKING TO YOU?"

"Wchooouuuwwwwww."

Still shivering, Link stood up and pushed at the door. He pulled at the chains. He even knocked.

_I'll freeze to death if I stay here all night._

Now was the time to rest. Now was the time to rest, when everybody needed him.

_I can't…_

But he had to.

_Maybe there's something I'm not thinking of. Maybe…_

"Wchooooouuuuuuuuwwwww."

"SHUT UP!" Link screamed. "I HAVE TO GET INSIDE A DOOR THE YETIS LOCKED FOR GOOD REASON SO I CAN GET A MONSTER YETI TO TRY AND KILL ME. SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"

"Wchooouuuuuwwwww."

Link banged his head against the door.

…and everything clicked together.

It was a set of double doors, but it did not give. Upon further inspection, Link realized that it was really a single panel, made to look like two, that opened by being raised upward, like a garage door (not that he knew what a garage door was).

Which was odd, because the chains locking the door were attached to the sides of the doorframe. That wouldn't stop a door from going up and down.

Come to think of it, that wouldn't stop a door from going side-to-side either, if it opened inwards.

And that was when Link realized the crucial piece of information: _The yetis had been the ones to lock the door._

He started laughing. So hard he had to sit down again. Yeta didn't have arms… so this had to be Yeto's handiwork… _oh gosh…_ Yeto thought that he had locked the door… _oh gosh oh gosh he's your host this isn't even polite_… Yeto thought that he had locked the door by securing chains on either side of the doorframe. _That isn't even that funny, why are you so—_

"Wchoooooouuuwwwww."

Link collapsed in a fit of laughter. He laughed so hard he could barely breathe, especially with the air so cold.

_I can't feel my feet!_

And that was funny too.

_Hey… hey! I really _can't feel my feet_!_

Link stood up and rubbed his feet vigorously.

He had better get inside.

The door looked heavy, but it didn't take much pulling at the bottom before it started to rise on its own. Link remembered the books about magic in the living room and shook his head in wonder. He'd have to tell someone about those books.

Now that the door was open, he could see the shadowy interior of the bedroom (behind Yeto's deftly-placed chains).

The mirror shard was waiting.

Link pulled his new ball and chain from his pouch (DON'T QUESTION IT!) and walked into the darkness, his thoughts cold and dangerous. Fear had no place in the presence of the raw, dark freedom of courage.

Link never noticed that, under his glove, the Triforce symbol on his free hand was glowing (and had been for the better part of the day).


	13. Chapter 13: Blizetta

The mirror shard wasn't in the bedroom.

After practically tearing the place apart, Link sat on the bed. Staring at the wall, eyes too filled with defeat to be empty.

He was ready to collapse. Had been since he'd defeated the armored lizard. He hated the idea of giving up on Midna… but wouldn't it be better if he could rest here, _voluntarily_, out of the snow and onto a soft bed, instead of falling to the floor against his will somewhere else? To get back to the parlor, he would have to go back out in the cold, fight a freezard, climb down a ladder, wade through snow… that wasn't about to happen. Nope, not at all.

_Could_ he sleep here? Would it be safe?

This was the yetis' bedroom. _Yeta's _bedroom. If anywhere in the mansion could be considered a beast lair, it would be right here.

The thought suddenly occurred to Link that perhaps he wouldn't need to find the mirror shard to meet his foe. That perhaps waiting around in Yeta's room would be enough. That was what he wanted, right? What he was here for?

_No. Too tired. Go back to thinking about where to sleep._

_No. Midna is too important. Go back to thinking about how to find Yeta._

_NO! STOP! No thinking! Absolutely not! Not about anything! Thinking is currently broken, try again later— _

_*`~._,~`*`~._,~`*`~._,~`*`~._,~`*`~….._

Link put his face in his good hand and mentally watched, helpless, as his thought patterns shriveled and scattered.

_Help_

_Help_

_Help_

_Help_

…_.NO HELP_

Logical next step. Surely there was a logical next step left. SURELY. Maybe no solution, but surely there was a logical next step.

A bright and hopeful thought limped its way through the angry snarl of its brethren—a thought of the soup Link had packed in his glass bottles.

_Food. Have food._

Link tore open his pouch, pulled out the first bottle he could find… Lantern oil. Pulled out the SECOND bottle he could find, uncorked it, and drank eagerly. Had he eaten all day? He couldn't remember… he didn't remember either visiting the kitchen or digging out his soup, so no. He must have been too desperately busy to even feel hungry. Not so now. Oh no. The soup was thick, cold, and just as _fishy _as ever, but Link didn't care. It didn't even taste nasty to him anymore, he was so hungry. After he'd drained the bottle, he set it next to him on the bed and dug around for the second one.

He slowed.

Frowned.

Stopped.

_Wait hang on_

Link looked at the empty glass bottle.

Picked it up, examined it critically.

Put it down, put a hand to his stomach.

"Urk."

This was the same soup Yeto had been feeding him since he'd gotten here. He'd never had a problem after eating it before. What…

His stomach churned again, and a splitting headache showed up out of nowhere.

Gasping and thoroughly confused, Link curled up on the bed. He had only one free hand, and apparently his head needed it the most now, even though his stomach flip flops were getting worse and worse. What was wrong, what was causing this – the soup? how… why…

Then his hand began to turn into a clawed paw.

A clawed paw.

Like…

The kind a wolf has.

…_im..poss..ibl.e…_

Wolf thoughts, feelings, sensations flooded his mind, demanding control. As he fought them off, he was dimly aware of a tail beginning to form. Fur. A snout. His insides briskly rearranging themselves.

_No! _

Already his wounded arm screamed in pain as the jumbled mess of it shifted form. There were bandages around that arm! Would those go with the clothes? And once he was a wolf, he wouldn't be able to use the Master Sword…

Those were the last human thoughts he had before something flipped and that side grew dormant. Minutes later, the great sacred beast lay on the bed.

He lay motionless, eyes closed. Panting.

The bandages around his injured arm—foreleg now—had indeed vanished. And the pain—he felt like a pounding wound that had some other vaguely important bits attached to it. Finally, after careful deliberation, he put his nose to the injury, desperately curious to see how bad it was.

A shudder rattled through his frame. His ears flattened, and he let out a low whine.

Helpless.

Finished.

_Midna…_

_Midna will come._

The thought held no certainty. It was merely a mental statement of the circumstances under which he might continue to live.

The great wolf raised his head.

Hesitated.

Then howled.

It was no tune, like the ones he sometimes heard through the oddly-shaped rocks. It was just a howl. A long, low howl. He could feel the life inside him, like a fragile thread – with his voice he painted that thread all over Snowpeak Mountain.

_This is me. I am here._

A haunting cry of sadness.

For Midna.

Minutes later—impossibly—a rustle of chains! The door began to slide open! Link's ears shot up, and, heart hammering, he watched the door intently.

Midna?

But no.

Oh no.

Not Midna at all.

He recognized his visitor before the opening door fully disclosed her shape.

The female yeti.

This time, sporting bulging red eyes instead of gentle little black ones.

Wicked fangs protruding unashamedly from smiling lips.

Yeta but not Yeta—a monster.

The monster.

And he was helpless.

Link lost it, as he sometimes did when he fought in this form. His thoughts, inhibitions, values – intelligence and all of those little associated mental decencies from the human part of him – melted into unnervingly natural animal rage. Rage and fear.

He snapped his teeth together (a satisfying click) and growled. A low, jagged rumble dripping with the promise of pain.

If the howl had said "This is all I am," the growl said "This is all I am, and none of it likes you."

The monster stood there. Staring. Round eyes unblinking.

Link's growl rattled on.

"Pretty monster?" the monster said finally. "Friend?"

It took a few shuffling steps forward, and Link raised himself upwards a bit, sharply. His growl intensified. He was in no mood to process words – her posture was threatening!

Not Yeta stopped and watched him.

His unacceptance was unrelenting. _I'll tear you apart._

They locked eyes for a good while.

Then the mighty monster yeti sat down where she stood, bowed her head, and began to cry.

That surprised Link so much that he stopped growling. A few rational thought patterns ventured up to his conscious mind. Monsters don't sit down and cry… they eat people, right?

"Friend?" the monster whimpered, looking up with those big, bulbous red eyes. "Friend now? Must be friend! Little friend to look after! Yeta take care of normal Link… now Blizetta have monster Link to take care of?"

Uncertain, Link showed his teeth.

"FRIEND!" the monster shouted, spittle flying from that mini forest of teeth.

Link roared.

_Apparently not, ma'am! _

Blizetta got up and came running, making a terrible noise of her own. She darted her head at Link like a snake, mouth gaping.

Link struck almost simultaneously—his small head reached under her great one as it came. Reached for her throat. Found it.

They struggled.

Blizetta flopped forward on top of Link's injured foreleg.

Link yowled in agony and let go – still snarling, Blizetta hopped quickly back away from the bed.

He expected her to attack him again. Instead she rose into the air and began covering herself with ice. Floated towards the bed.

What.

What.

What.

Link whimpered and sprang to his feet as quickly as possible. Mind dulled by pain and confusion, he still managed to leap from the bed seconds before Blizetta hit it, escaping with his life. His rough landing tore a helpless squeak from his lungs. He could feel his injured foreleg move around in ways it shouldn't, for sure. _STOP MOVING! _said every instinct but the one that said to run.

Blizetta rose back into the air and floated towards Link once more.

What.

_You're not supposed to be able to do that!_

The monster yeti threw herself at Link several more times before giving up and rising all the way up to the ceiling.

"NOT FRIEND?" she roared. "I DID NOT NEED FRIEND ANYWAY!"

The windows broke. Impossibly cold air rushed in, and the entire room froze. Formidable ice pillars formed protectively around their creator.

Link's ears flattened to the sides of his head.

He did not know why he had become a wolf.

He did not know why the monster tried to call him friend.

He did not know what her abilities were.

But he did know…

_I failed you, Midna._


	14. Chapter 14: Reunion

Yeto had gotten up that morning and gone up the mountain to assess the wolfos situation. He'd stopped to investigate a curious black speck in the snow, and he'd never come back.

A cursed Midna found a cursed Yeto at the bottom of a gorge. He'd slid down there on purpose upon realizing that he was fighting a losing battle against head crazies. He hadn't exactly wanted the head crazies to march him and his strong fists over to his house (where his wife was!) and pulverize his injured little weakling guest.

The curses recognized each other as different halves of the same whole, so Midna stopped to pull him out.

It was only because of this delay that the first of the series of visitors to reach Link was the golden wolf.

"Link," the wolf said, dropping in from one of the broken windows, "Midna sent me here to keep you safe. Come with—ah. I can't take you to my world while you're in that form."

"WHAT?" Link said.

"My purpose is to train a swordsman," the wolf said. "Once I picked you as the swordsman I would train, it set at lot of rules into place as to how I must interact with you. I am not allowed to—"

Link didn't get to hear what he wasn't allowed to do because just then a demonic-looking Midna crashed into him and pinned him to the wall.

"Very fitting," she said evilly. "We will kill you while you take the form we hate the most."

"MIDNA!" Link barked. "MIDNA, NO, YOU…"

But she was not Midna.

Not Midna seized his neck and would have broken it if Blizetta hadn't slammed the both of them with an ice pillar. Link limped away in a hurry once he hit the ground, but Blizetta was able to catch Midna and press her against the wall with another pillar. Blizetta didn't need much motivation to try and kill, and Midna had made her very angry. The shard's dark magic hadn't been able to make Midna dodge effectively because it didn't care about her.

Link did.

It made him sick to see what horrors she'd endured while trying to protect him and his land. She'd disappeared on him that one time to protect her identity. Once the stakes had been raised, she'd gambled with her very life. How could he have doubted her integrity?

But how could he save her?

Suddenly. The sound of the door being pulled open, by someone of massive strength – Yeto.

The _head crazies_ version.

The version that locks eyes with you and grins evilly instead of smiling at you and patting your face.

This version also advances, slowly, eyes blazing with murderous intent.

Link's mind raced. An idea? A bad idea. They were all bad ideas; the situation could not support a good one. He limped quickly, slipping and sliding on the ice, foreleg in agony; ran until he reached the ball and chain that his person self had left on the floor. Cursed Yeto followed him – good. Link offered him the handle of the ball and chain like a dog offering its master a stick. Yeto saw it and accepted it eagerly. Then Link limped away as fast as he could on the ice – towards Blizetta. He knew how dangerous she was. He knew how dangerous Midna would be once she was free. He didn't care. Not about that. _Midna needed him._ Blizetta saw him – soon enough, ice pillars slammed down around him. With the last of his strength, he tried to dodge, tried to escape, but there were so many ice pillars… Once second he was looking at his own terrified face in one of them that had just fallen, the next he felt the wrenching impact of another one – he collapsed, gasping – picked himself up, clawed his way forward on the ice to position Blizetta between himself and Yeto – then heard, as if from a great distance:

SMACK.

Blizetta roared in anger and turned to face

SMACK.

SMACK.

SMACK.

With Blizetta distracted by Yeto and the ball and chain, Not Midna flew to Link, seized him by the neck, and pinned him to the wall again.

"Midna," Link whispered.

"We're not her," Not Midna said. "But we will send her your way once we're through with you!"

He'd done it.

He'd made her safe from Blizetta.

But he could not make her safe from this curse.

His wide blue eyes took in her unfocused yellow one, and he felt a peaceful sort of regret – even though he could not save her, he had done all that he could. His death would spell doom for Hyrule, but he could allow himself contentment for this small victory, meaningless as it was.

"I forgive you, Midna" Link said, closing his eyes. "I love you so much."

He waited, waited for her to snap his neck, but the small black hands only held him.

Then.

A globby, black mass flew out of Midna's forehead. It hit Link in the face and sunk promptly into his head.

Link blinked, sneezed, opened his eyes.

And there, blinking and confused herself, was Midna.

The old Midna.

And suddenly everything was right in the world.

"Midna?" he whispered.

Midna stared at him. She opened and closed her mouth. Then her face crinkled up and she let out a wail that rivaled Link's howl earlier.

"Are you okay?" Link asked. "Did it hurt you?"

"YOU'RE OKAY!" Midna shrieked.

"No…" Link admitted. "Not… uh, not really…" He could feel her grip weakening, felt himself sliding slowly down the wall, let himself slide. Felt himself drifting gently into unconsciousness too, accepted that as well.

First, Midna tried to pull him back up, then thought better of it and helped him to the floor, gently and carefully.

"Link, you _are_ okay," she said, voice trembling. "You're going to be fine."

She was struck with a sudden thought – she whirled around to face the yetis, surely approaching now to attack…

But they weren't attacking.

There was Yeto, sitting on the floor and holding Yeta, stroking her face, his expression such a mess of guilt and grief it was nearly unreadable (the ice underneath the pair was rapidly melting).

Normal Yeto. Holding normal Yeta.

And there was the Golden Wolf, sitting in front of them, facing Midna.

"I took Yeto to my world, my Lady," he said. "He made short work of his captors. They are not only out of him but dead, gone forever. I felt I had to act… after his wife had taken enough damage from his attacks with the ball and chain, she became herself again, weak and wounded, and still he did not stop… I thought it best to intervene. They are both safe."

"But…your rules –!" Midna said.

"The action was highly unadvised, my Lady," the golden wolf said. "But the yeti had seen me before, he was unlikely to regard it as a true event, he was unlikely to be in contact with curious enemies… not wholly illegal. He was in danger of killing his wife. And the pair of them were a threat to my swordsman. I think I did what a human would do."

"You did what only some humans would do," Midna said warmly. "You did what the best of them would do."

"I must go," the wolf said, after nodding graciously to Midna. "Link, take sword in hand and find me."

"…what?" Link mumbled.

Midna watched the wolf leave.

She turned to look at the yetis. Hugging each other and crying.

"I don't mean to bother you…" Midna said, "but may we have the mirror? I need to get Link to a doctor as quickly as possible…"

"Of course!" Yeta cried. "Mirror is horrible!" She saw Link looking at her and caught his eye – "Husband cares so much, uh. Loves so much. Talking is harder than hiding, but better. So much better, uh." Then, to Midna, "Take mirror. Uh, please take mirror."

"Thank you," Midna said gravely. Then… "Um… where is the mirror, Yeta?"

Yeta started to cry gently.

"Blizetta monster did bad things," she wept. "Wanted friend. Blizetta want Link as friend. Wolfos pets in courtyard turned monster for a short time when mirror put next to them, uh. Yeta did such a bad thing. Put mirror into soup pot… want Link to eat soup, be monster too. Yeta let him wander around in cold, let him get hurt by monsters. Yeta even unlock doors to give him more places to explore so he tired out and hungry, uh. Keep checking on him, see if monster yet. _And then he did eat soup and be monster! And Yeta hurt him when he not friendly! YETA SO MEAN, UH!_"

Yeto held her close as she cried, ashamed.

Midna looked at Link.

"You're a wolf!" she said, surprised, noticing – really noticing – for the first time.

"Link okay?" Yeta wailed. "Stuck like that forever, uh?"

"No, he can change back!" Midna said. "He always takes that form when he is exposed to Twilight – what the mirror is made of."

"Only wanted to help husband!" Yeta wailed. "Decided to be okay with mirror going away! Accepted losing pretend friend, uh! But then husband left, did not come back – Yeta scared, went to mirror, wanted to be strong! Did not think mirror self was so evil! _Did not know that Blizetta would decide to not follow, leave husband to die!_"

"Yeta…" Yeto said, hugging her closer.

"Wanted friend so bad," Yeto sobbed. "So bad. SOOO bad."

A momentary silence.

"Yeto?" Yeta sniffled.

"Yeta?" Yeto asked.

"Yeta have something to ask," Yeta said.

"Anything!" Yeto said.

"Yeta wants children," Yeta said.

Yeto froze.

"What?"

"Yeta wants children," Yeta said. "No more preparing and thinking about. Pet wolfos are nice, but they are just pets. Yeta wants children, uh!"

"Uh?" Yeto said. "Yeta want…"

"Yeta wants children," Yeta said. "Always so afraid to ask, so afraid husband would change subject to other things, not understand. But after all of this happen, with mirror… Yeta learn. Yeta need to ask things, uh. Need to talk to husband. Bad when I never say anything, head full of unhappy."

"Yeta…" Yeto said.

"Yeta what?" Yeta said, recoiling as if struck.

"Yeta what… Yeta WHAT we going to call them?" Yeto said, finally, smiling sheepishly.

Then they both started laughing and crying, and Yeto held Yeta closer than ever – Link and Midna would hardly have been surprised if the sheer presence of their love had started generating random little red hearts out of nowhere.


	15. Chapter 15: Most of All

One morning, as the postman was beginning a long run from Castle Town to Zora's Domain, he was shocked and alarmed to find a kid he knew lying on the side of the road, barely conscious and very badly injured. He ran as fast as he could back to the town and rounded up several of the gorons that lived there. They knew the kid too—he'd helped them before (even told them a neat trick about stomping on grass and getting extra money). The gorons assured the postman that they could easily carry the poor kid to the doctor's. Relieved, the postman continued on his way.

Gossip spread quickly, and soon Telma and a group of her friends were all crowded in the doctor's office for a visit.

"Link, what happened to you? You look terrible!"

"Oh, Link! I can't believe how brave you are!"

"Link, you got to see yetis? What were they like?"

"I remember a time when I fell off a roof and couldn't move for a week…"

"I fell off a horse once…"

Link let them talk, politely answering their questions and occasionally commenting on their stories. He was glad to have chatter to concentrate on, at least; At the doctor's behest, he'd swallowed more chuchu jelly than anyone ought to be swallowing in a single day, and his stomach was threatening to punish him for it. He let them talk; when night fell, he would be able to talk with the one who had actually followed him up the mountain.

As it turned out, he didn't even have to wait that long.

"You ready to get out of here, pooch?" Midna said, springing up out of his shadow during the doctor's lunch hour.

"I'd like to," Link said, "but I've been thinking—I'm worried that if you warped me to one of the healing springs I'd bump something the wrong way and mess up my arm. The doctor spent a really long time lining up all of the broken bones. I found out the hard way that bandages disappear if I turn into a wolf. Maybe I should stay here for a few more d—"

Midna dove under the bed and came back with a fairy in a bottle.

"No way," Link said. "How did you—"

"After I warped you to Castle Town, I took your bottle to one of the healing springs, with all of the fairies," Midna said proudly.

"I thought you told me before that anything with pure light magic hurts you!" Link said.

"Yeah, so?" Midna said. "Turns out, they were so scared of me I was able to chase one right into the bottle. So I didn't even have to worry about anything like that. You know, I would have come back with something for you, back at Snowpeak, if I'd found something—_if_ I'd been able to capture Zant's rock instead of the other way around, that is."

"I know," Link said.

"So I think I've more than made it up to you," Midna said.

"You didn't have to get a fairy," Link said.

"I was also worried you'd hurt your arm if I warped you," Midna said. "And I didn't think you wanted to spend much time hanging around here. So there. Here you go."

The fairy was impatient. Once it had seen Link, it had forgotten all about the scary shadow thing and about being trapped in a bottle. There was a wounded person out there that needed help! Once released, it shot out of the bottle and zoomed around Link.

"Stupid things," Midna laughed. "It's their own fault people like you exploit them so much."

"Be nice," Link said. "Oh, so _this _is what life without constant pain feels like. I could really get used to this."

"You were hurt pretty bad," Midna said, "so I'm not completely sure the fairy could heal you all the way. I think it's safe for you to change into a wolf, but I'd really like to warp you to the healing spring at Ordon, just in case. Is that okay?"

"Wonderful," Link said.

"Alright," Midna said. "Roll over on your side and lay still."

"You're sure it's safe for you to carry that artifact fragment around?" Link said. "It hasn't been giving you trouble? I know we destroyed most of it with the Master Sword, but it still worries me a little."

"I'm safe as long as I'm with you," Midna said, rolling the small black lump in her palms. "I left it with you, right next to the Master Sword, while I was off getting the fairy. Just to be sure. Besides, I know how its magic works now. If something this small tried to get at me, I'm almost certain I could drive it away, no problem. Ready?"

"I've been ready since this morning," Link said.

When the doctor returned, he didn't know what to be more surprised about: the fact that his patient had vanished or the fact that there were little green hairs all over the bed.

"So, Midna," Link said, lying in the shallow end of the spring, eyes closed peacefully.

"Yes?" Midna said from the shore.

"How did you break free of Zant's artifact?" Link asked. "I said that I loved you and all of a sudden you were back to normal, almost like we were in a story or something."

"You… you said you loved me?" Midna asked.

"Um. Yeah…" Link said, opening his eyes and reddening. "I thought… UM. Never mind."

"I didn't know you said that," Midna mused. "While I was cursed, I don't think I heard a word you said about anything. I was concentrating too hard on fighting to be free. Well… Right! Answering your question. The golden wolf had tried to help me before, the way he helped Yeto, but I didn't think I was strong enough to defeat the curse. I told him to let me go and rescue you. I was really upset about not being able to free myself, so I tried to find a way to get rid of the curse on my own, using what the golden wolf told me. When I was in front of you, when the artifact was trying to kill you, you had this look like you thought that everything would be alright somehow, against all odds…"

"I remember being pretty certain that it wouldn't," Link said.

"I remember how you looked at me on the side of the mountain," Midna said defensively, "when I deserted you. You didn't look like that in the yetis' bedroom. You looked like you trusted me."

"Yeah, to kill me," Link said. "I think you were looking at resignation to death."

"Oh," Midna said.

An awkward silence.

"Uh, go on," Link said.

"Right," Midna said. "Well… so I _thought _that you trusted me. So… I trusted you back. Since you trusted me, I trusted me. I stopped worrying I wasn't a good friend to you, I stopped worrying that I wasn't a good pr… I stopped worrying about making a mess of my life before I met you, and I just focused on breaking free of the curse and saving you. In my mind, I pictured it as something physical that I could struggle away from, and I did."

(She would have said: "I guess the whole thing was like a scene from a book from my end too because I was only able to break free when I believed in myself and, like, used the power of love and friendship, ha ha." But she didn't say that. Twili don't write books like that.)

"Looks like I was strong enough after all, but just barely. Or maybe I was never strong enough, but that time the curse was stupid and relaxed its hold on me in its excitement to get at you. Who knows. We're alive, and I'll take that any day. But what's this about _what you said_, Link? What did you mean by that?"

"I thought I was going to die," Link said, "so I figured you should know..."

"Yeah?" Midna said.

"Well," Link said. "There all kinds of love, right? There's love in romantic relationships, family relationships, friendships…

"Uh huh…" Midna said.

"Right," Link said. "But… I've never really had a girlfriend… I've never really had a family… and I've never really had close friends…

"Okay..." Midna said.

"So," Link said, "I guess what I meant was, that I love you most of all. Does that work, for now?"

Midna stared, startled. Then she lowered her eyes.

"Oh Link," she said quietly.

"Are you…"

"I am NOT crying!" Midna said. (Link had started to say, "Are you okay?") "And there's someone coming, so I'm going to hide in this tree for now."

"Midna," Link said, "there's no one there! We can talk about something else, if you want… or do you want to stay up there for a while?... Midna?"

Out of sight, Midna cried silently into a thick branch.

She was the princess of a broken people. One day, soon, duty would return her to them.

Alone.

"Midna!" Link said. "Are you okay? Was it something I said?"

"You're fine!" Midna said. "I'm fine too. I'm coming."

"Midna," Link said unhappily, "I think I understand. You probably think I'm really shallow for saying I love you when only a few days ago I betrayed you and told Yeto about you. But being alone in that mansion really showed me how capable I really am. And, also, I have the Master Sword with me. So from now on, I won't be making judgments on when's a good time for you to warp me. If a bad situation comes up and you can't get me out, I'll handle it, and I won't be mad at you. I promise."

"Link," Midna said, "you're _fine_! I'll be down in *sniff* in a second…"

Now was the part where she was supposed to say "don't worry, I'll actually always be there for you."

But that would be a lie.

Link's experience on Snowpeak had changed him for the better. He had learned to survive by himself. "If a bad situation comes up…I'll handle it." He would probably live the rest of his life by those words.

Midna had grown too. But her lesson was nowhere near as useful as Link's. Her lesson would only bring pain.

She already knew how to survive by herself. What she had learned was to fight for another.

The Twili were a cunning, cunning race. Midna's people were peaceful enough by nature, but they were not light dwellers. Among them, love and trust were scarce. All too soon, if she and Link were successful, she would once again live among them as their princess. She had known loneliness before—known it well. But she had never faced it when pieces of her heart belonged to someone else, someone perfectly unreachable. If only she'd realized sooner that Link had been quietly collecting them, all this time…

She would always be there for her Link, fiercely loyal to the end… until it was time for that final, unavoidable betrayal – a bitter, undeserved parting gift for the one who _she_ loved most of all.

She should tell him. She should just tell him. Was there any real reason to keep him in the dark? Someone could torture the information out of him if he knew… but, realistically, who was out there to torture him? And who even cared? When Zant had first left her like this, she hadn't known a thing about his plans, how dangerous the situation was, how complicated… but so far it seemed that Zant, the warped monster Twili, that Ganondorf guy, and the bublins were the only enemies out there. Zant already knew, the monster Twili were little more than beasts, and Ganondorf and the bublins weren't Twili and probably didn't care who she was; they'd resist defeat by the Twilight Princess just as much as they'd resist defeat by a little imp with a funky stone thing on her head.

So why didn't she just tell him?

Why hadn't she just told him a long time ago?

Because she was a Twili.

It was that simple.

She could know, with one part of her mind, that Link was the nicest, most honorable creature either world had ever shown her or ever would. She could know that his loyalty to her would not change if he knew that, after a painfully short while, they would never see each other again.

But she could not tell him that she would leave because then he would know when to expect her to stop being useful to him.

Twili don't tell each other when to expect that.

Not ever.

When one Twili tells another Twili such details about usefulness… bad things happen. The first Twili might hear things like, "Oh, so if you're still going to call the shots as the princess after we get married, how would you like to be an imp for the rest of your life? I have some new magic powers I wanted to try out today anyway."

Link could prove his loyalty a thousand times—and he had, which was the really sad part—but that would not erase any of Midna's experiences. It would not change her heritage. Her capacity to trust had been widened more than she ever would have thought possible. But even Link could not repair all of the damage. They would continue their adventures, they would defeat Zant and Ganondorf, if such a thing was even possible, and then Midna would leave and Link would wonder why she'd known she'd have to all this time and never told him. And then they would get on with their lives. All of that would have to happen because, while light and shadow can coexist and even define each other, they're not the same thing.

He was wrong to love her because she could not love him back. What she felt could not be love because those that truly love each other do not do this. And Midna knew that she would continue to fight by his side, continue to accept his kindness, continue to pretend, up until the last second when she ran away, because that would be easy and she was afraid.

_You don't have to do that. You could just—_

_NO._

Afraid.

So afraid.

Whatever she felt for Link, she felt it strongly enough that she never wanted to tarnish its memory—never wanted find out what he would do if he knew that she would soon have to leave him forever, never wanted to risk a discovery that her secrets could turn him against her. Even if it meant hurting him.

And… just now… he'd told her that the look of peace she'd seen on his face, in the yetis' bedroom, hadn't been trust.

He hadn't saved her from Yeta with the expectation of being safe from her.

But he'd saved her anyway.

Surely she could tell someone like that _anything_…

Yeta told Yeto about wanting kids, and he accepted that just fine… maybe…

NO.

….

_The people of light _

…

_were right _

…

_to banish _

…

_the Twili_

…

"Midna?" Link said quietly. He sounded very worried.

Reluctantly, Midna flew down.

"Are you okay?" Link asked. "What's wrong."

"Link," Midna said, barely holding back her tears, "find someone else. Love someone else most of all."

They studied each other.

"This is about that super important thing you have going on that you can't tell me about, isn't it?" Link said. "It's okay. I love you. If your secrets affect me somehow, I'll handle it."

"You don't know what you're saying," Midna said.

"I don't have to know what I'm saying," Link said. "I know why I'm saying it. Now, we're both alive and perfectly healthy. We're out of that mansion, and it's a sunny day. Let's forget about all of this stuff that that makes you sad and I can't know about anyway. I feel like running, and I think there are some people in Castle Town who feel like being terrorized by a giant puppy. What do you say?"

"Am I that bad of an influence on you?" Midna asked, smiling shyly through her tears, hating herself for letting the matter drop so readily.

"Only when I'm trying to make you smile," Link said.

"If that's the case," Midna said, hugging him close to her, while they still occupied the same universe, "you must be much worse than I thought. You were the one who taught me how."

And Midna realized that they would not get on with their lives once she left. Because Link just might be able to forgive her. He just might understand if, someday, somehow, she ever met him again and found the courage to explain her reasons.

So she allowed herself to believe that, when she left, it wouldn't be for forever. Even if she destroyed the mirror.

She who had once thought she'd never allow herself to believe anything again.

Much less with all her heart.

…Had _the_ _good people of Castle Town_ heard that warm exchange, on the other hand, they would not have been _at all_ amused.

The End


	16. Epilogue

EPILOGUE

"Son," Ooccoo whispered. "Are you there? Where are we?"

"I'm here, mother!" Ooccoo Jr. said brightly. "You're awake! We're at the hot springs above Karikariko Village. I brought you here so you could get better. I was worried about you, mother. The gorons weren't sure if you were going to make it."

The gorons had all left, finding the two quite repulsive and perhaps frightening, but Jr. didn't mention that.

"Son…" Ooccoo said, looking here and there blearily, "we _really_ need to get home."

"Right, mother," Ooccoo Jr. said.

"It's dangerous around these parts," Ooccoo said.

"I don't know what I would have done if I'd lost you, mother," Ooccoo Jr. said.

"We need to make that stupid teenager help us," Ooccoo continued. "He's the only one who doesn't run at the sight of us."

"Agreed, mother," Ooccoo Jr. said, nodding his whole little self.

"And if he follows us," Ooccoo said slowly, "to our home in the sky…"

"Yes mother?" Ooccoo Jr. asked.

"Then we should tell our kin to push him off the edge!" Ooccoo said, with a laugh that was no prettier than she was.

"That would be so funny, mother!" Ooccoo Jr. giggled.

…_to be continued?_

* * *

><p>Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess © Nintendo. This story is a transformative fan creation made with the intent of complying with Fair Use Guidelines.<p>

oh mai goodness, I actually finished a story, how did that even happen, I don't

Special thanks to all of my readers! YOU GUYS ARE SOOO SUPER AWESOME OMG! Without your support and kind words, I never would have been able to write this much!

Special thanks to Nintendo for creating such an amazing game!

Special thanks to Zelda Dungeon and Zelda Wiki for being such awesome and reliable databases for all things Legend of Zelda!

Special thanks to my family, for showing me that love is a little more complicated but a lot more real than I used to think it was (I probably showed them the same thing, ha ha)!

And special thanks to God! Because everything!


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